US Politics
Trump officials try to reassure Ukraine’s negotiators over peace deal ahead of Putin meeting this week
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Two of Donald Trump’s allies met Sunday with top Ukrainian officials in Florida as the Trump administration seeks to convince Ukraine’s government to accept a peace plan many saw as clearly tilted towards Russia’s war demands.
A delegation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisers and top officials met with lead U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami on Sunday ahead of a trip to meet with Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday.
On the agenda is the 28-point peace plan proposed by the U.S. this month, which has drawn apparent skepticism from both Ukraine and its European allies, given reports that it drew heavily from a Russian-authored plan submitted to the State Department in October.
Donald Trump himself, when asked, could not name a serious concession Moscow was being asked to make under the latest proposal. Under the original 28-point plan his team laid out, Ukraine would cede some territory in the east to Russia and have its military size capped in the future. Kyiv would also be forced to agree not to join NATO.
Witkoff and Kushner previously met with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, in October, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.
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At that meeting, the trio discussed what the Trump administration reportedly views as an unprecedented economic opportunity: The reopening of Russia’s economy to the West, with a $300bn gold mine in the form of frozen Russian assets immediately lootable to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as other lucrative U.S.-Russia joint investment opportunities that could benefit Trump’s allies directly.
U.S. negotiators met with Ukrainian officials one week ago in Geneva, where the 28-point plan was formally discussed at length, and reports indicated that a modified version containing 19 points was agreed upon.
Russia has not accepted the modified plan, but Axios reports that the “heavily revised” version is what is expected to be presented to Moscow after Sunday’s talks in Miami.
Witkoff is hosting the Ukrainian team at his Shell Bay Club near Hollywood, Florida.
Those central bank funds and other assets have been frozen in European financial systems since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. News of the meetings follows the sudden resignation of Zelensky’s chief of staff after police raided his home as part of a corruption investigation.
The delegation is set to be headed by national security adviser Rustem Umerov, as well as a top military commander and members of the country’s intelligence services.
It also comes on the back of a massive Russian-directed drone attack against Kyiv, which is thought to have killed at least one person and wounded nearly a dozen more, according to media reports.
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Zelensky, on Saturday, released a statement on the negotiations which seemed to signal that the Ukrainian side was not as far on board with the U.S. proposal as unnamed Trump officials made it sound to news outlets over the course of the week.
It’s unclear to what extent the modified version still includes those territorial provisions following the Geneva meeting last weekend.
“The dialogue based on the Geneva points will continue. Diplomacy remains active. The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end,” said the Ukrainian president on Saturday, per a translation on the government’s website.
“The Ukrainian delegation has the necessary directives, and I expect the [team] to work in accordance with clear Ukrainian priorities.“
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An aide to Zelensky’s former chief of staff, after the meeting, told the Washington Post: “Many of the controversial provisions were either softened or at least reshaped.”
Separately, a White House readout of the Geneva talks painted a rosy picture of the Ukrainian government’s supposed willingness to accept the U.S.’s terms.
“The Ukrainian delegation affirmed that all of their principal concerns—security guarantees, long-term economic development, infrastructure protection, freedom of navigation, and political sovereignty—were thoroughly addressed during the meeting. They expressed appreciation for the structured approach taken to incorporate their feedback into each component of the emerging settlement framework,” read the White House readout.
It continued: “Ukrainian representatives stated that, based on the revisions and clarifications presented today, they believe the current draft reflects their national interests and provides credible and enforceable mechanisms to safeguard Ukraine’s security in both the near and long term.”
