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Washington has proposed the first face-to-face negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in six months, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, though he expressed skepticism about the matter.
Meanwhile, US and Russian special envoys are holding talks over the weekend in Miami on ending the war in Ukraine, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he might join.
These meetings are part of the US President Donald Trump administration’s push for a lasting ceasefire, which also includes talks with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev told reporters in Miami on Saturday that the talks on the US 20-point proposed peace plan to bring the war to an end “are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and will continue today.”
According to Russian state media, Dmitriev met with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, told state-run media that changes to the peace plan being made by Ukraine and Europe are causing delays in reaching an agreement. “I am more than sure that the provisions that the Europeans have introduced or are trying to introduce with Ukrainians do not improve the documents and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace,” he said.
Zelenskyy: ‘It must not be a rhetorical or political game’
Despite negotiations which Zelenskyy on Sunday called “constructive” and said they mattered, he shared his worries in a post on X, stating: “Much depends on whether Russia feels the need to end the war for real – it must not be a rhetorical or political game on Russia’s part.”
He warned that the signals from Russia so far remain negative, citing assaults along the frontline, war crimes in border areas, and continued strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure.
On Saturday President Zelenskyy said an agreement can only happen depending on how much pressure the US puts on Russia, he said “America must clearly say: if not diplomacy, then there will be full pressure…Putin does not yet feel the kind of pressure that should exist,”.
Ukrainian, EU and American partners met on Friday
This followed Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov saying his delegation had held separate meetings on Friday with American and European partners in the United States and that they agreed to keep on working together “in the near future”.
On Friday, Putin said he was confident Russia could achieve its goals by force if Kyiv refuses to accept Moscow’s terms in peace talks.
Although Trump has deployed a big diplomatic push to end the war, he has been met with conflicting demands from Moscow and Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is sticking to his biggest demands on Ukraine, even as Russian troops make slow progress and suffer heavy losses.