US, Ukraine hail talks but no breakthrough

WASHINGTON — United States and Ukrainian envoys issued a joint statement on Sunday that hailed "productive and constructive" talks in Miami but did not announce any apparent breakthrough in efforts to end the conflict.

Talks held between the US,European and Ukrainian officials over the last three days in Florida aimed at ending the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine focused on aligning positions, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday.

Despite a flurry of high-level meetings, there have been no clear signals of imminent resolutions to key hurdles on ending the nearly four-year conflict.

Meanwhile, a Russian general was killed by a car bomb in Moscow on Monday, the latest in a growing list of military officials to be assassinated.

The US has been pressuring Ukraine and Russia to come to an agreement on ending the nearly four-year-old conflict as soon as possible.

After meeting Russia's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Saturday, Witkoff on Sunday met with officials from Europe, and then the Ukrainian delegation led by senior official Rustem Umerov.

Witkoff, in a social media post, called Sunday's talks "productive and constructive" and focused on a "shared strategic approach between Ukraine, the United States and Europe".

In a separate X post that used some of the same language, Witkoff said his talks with Dmitriev were also "productive and constructive".

"Russia remains fully committed to achieving peace in Ukraine," Witkoff said in the post."Russia highly values the efforts and support of the United States to resolve the Ukrainian conflict and reestablish global security."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram on Sunday that diplomatic efforts were "moving forward quite quickly, and our team in Florida has been working with the American side".

The meetings in Miami were the latest in a series of talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine on a US-drafted 20-point plan to end the conflict.

Four key points

Witkoff said the US-Ukraine meeting focused on four key points: further development of the 20-point plan, a multilateral security guarantee framework, a US security guarantee framework for Ukraine, and further development on economics and prosperity to rebuild Ukraine.

Negotiators focused especially on "timelines" and "sequencing of next steps", Witkoff said.

The proposals leaked to the media last month raised European and Ukrainian concerns that they were tilted too far in Russia's favor and that the Trump administration could push Kyiv into conceding too much.

Since then, European and Ukrainian negotiators have met with Trump envoys in an attempt to add their own proposals into the US drafts, though the exact contents of the current proposal have not been disclosed.

The US, Ukrainian and European officials earlier this week reported progress on security guarantees for Kyiv as part of the talks to end the conflict, but it remains unclear if those terms will be acceptable to Moscow.

European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide 90 billion euros ($106 billion) to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, although they failed to bridge differences with Belgium that would have allowed them to use frozen Russian assets to raise the funds.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said earlier on Sunday that changes made by the Europeans and Ukraine to US proposals did not improve prospects for peace. Ushakov said he had not seen the exact proposals on paper yet.

"I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace," Ushakov said.

Ushakov also said a proposal for three-way talks had not been seriously discussed by anyone and that it was not being worked on.

Ushakov added that Dmitriev was due to return to Moscow on Monday and would report to Putin on the outcome of his talks.

"After that, we will formulate the position with which we will proceed, including in our contacts with the Americans," Ushakov said.

Agencies via Xinhua