The US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet the head of Ukraine’s National Security Council (NSC), Rustem Umerov, in Florida on Thursday, a White House official confirmed.
The meeting comes after Witkoff's return from Moscow, where he held nearly five-hour-long discussions with the Russian president on Tuesday. While the Kremlin said the negotiations did not achieve anything meaningful since Russia stood firm on its position, US President Donald Trump, on the other hand, described the meeting as "reasonably good", adding that it was too soon to say what would happen because "it does take two to tango".
While responding to a question, Trump said he believes Putin also wants to end the war in Ukraine, which is why negotiations are underway. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia must "end the bloodshed" and accused Putin of "wasting the world's time".
However, Zelenskyy on Wednesday confirmed that a meeting between the US and Ukrainian peace delegation is likely in the coming days. In his post on X, Zelenskyy said, "Right now, the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war."
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While Ukraine and its backers are struggling to agree on a negotiated peace settlement, Russian forces continue to capture and seize more territories. On Tuesday, Russian forces claimed they captured two more settlements in Pokrovsk and in Donbas, putting more pressure on the already deteriorating Ukrainian front lines.
Observers believe that this is the right time to end the war in Ukraine, since the coming winter would prove catastrophic to the Ukrainian population, who are already witnessing a massive energy crisis.
For Moscow, an agreeable solution to the crisis, or what they call a conflict in Ukraine, is possible only after addressing three important factors, which they believe are the root cause of the problem.
The first demand includes NATO halting its constant and aggressive incursions near the Russian border, limiting the number of Ukrainian troops to 600,000, along with recognition of the Russian claim over Donbas and Crimea, annexed in 2014.
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