Top Trump administration officials met with Ukrainian negotiators in Florida on Sunday, pushing to broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine and setting the stage for key talks planned this week in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, held talks with a Ukrainian delegation to further hash out the main points of a proposed peace framework. The negotiations come at a sensitive moment for Ukraine because it continues to keep off against Russian forces that invaded in 2022 while coping with a domestic corruption scandal.
Diplomats have been focused on revisions to a proposed 28-point plan developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow. That plan has been criticized as being too weighted toward Russian demands. Because the meeting began Sunday, Rubio focused on reassuring Ukraine.
“The tip goal, obviously, just isn’t just the tip of the war,” Rubio said briefly remarks. “However it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with a possibility at real prosperity.”
“This just isn’t nearly peace deals,” the highest American diplomat said because the teams sat down on the Shell Bay Club, a golf and racket club developed by Witkoff in Hallandale Beach.
Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s security council, responded to Rubio by expressing his country’s appreciation for U.S. efforts, a message geared toward Trump, who has at times claimed that Ukraine has not been sufficiently grateful for U.S. assistance in the course of the war.
“U.S. is hearing us,” Umerov said. “U.S. is supporting us. U.S. is working beside us.”
Umerov has been involved in ongoing talks. But until now, Ukraine’s head negotiator had been Andrii Yermak, the powerful chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Friday, Zelenskyy announced the resignation of Yermak, after his home was searched by anti-corruption investigators.
Zelenskyy’s government has been roiled by fallout from a scandal over $100 million embezzled from the energy sector through kickbacks paid by contractors, causing newfound domestic pressures for Zelenskyy.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and world wide, join for breaking news alerts delivered on to you after they occur.
It was only per week ago that Rubio had met with Yermak in Geneva, with either side saying the talks had been positive in putting together a revised peace plan.
Among the many other members of the Ukrainian delegation were Andrii Hnatov, the pinnacle of Ukraine’s armed forces, and presidential adviser Oleksandr Bevz.
The plan, which Trump has since played down as a “concept” or a “map” to be “fine-tuned,” would have imposed limits on the scale of Ukraine’s military, blocked the country from joining NATO and required Ukraine to carry elections in 100 days. Negotiators have indicated the framework has modified, however it’s not clear how its provisions have been altered.
It had initially envisioned Ukraine ceding the complete eastern region of the Donbas to Russia — a sticking point for Kyiv.
Trump said on Tuesday that he would send Witkoff and maybe Kushner to Moscow this week to fulfill with Putin in regards to the plan. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in comments published Sunday on Russian state television, said Putin would see Witkoff before Thursday, when Putin departs for India.
Each Witkoff and Kushner, like Trump, hail from the world of real estate that values dealmaking over the conventions of diplomacy. The pair also were behind a 20-point proposal that led to a ceasefire in Gaza.
Zelenskyy wrote on X that the Ukrainian delegation would “swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to finish the war.”
In his nightly address on Saturday, Zelenskyy said the American side was “demonstrating a constructive approach.”
“In the approaching days it is possible to flesh out the steps to find out how one can bring the war to a dignified end,” he said.
Attacks proceed despite diplomatic efforts to finish the war
On Saturday, Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killed at the least three people and wounded dozens more, officials said. Fresh attacks overnight into Sunday killed one person and wounded 19 others, including 4 children, local officials said, when a drone hit a nine-story apartment block in the town of Vyshhorod within the Kyiv region.
In a post on Telegram Sunday, Zelenskyy said Russia had attacked Ukraine with 122 strike drones and ballistic missiles.
“Such attacks occur day by day. This week alone, Russians have used nearly 1,400 strike drones, 1,100 guided aerial bombs and 66 missiles against our people. That’s the reason we must strengthen Ukraine’s resilience day-after-day. Missiles and air defense systems are essential, and we must also actively work with our partners for peace,” Zelenskyy said.
“We want real, reliable solutions that can help end the war,” he said.
After Ukraine claimed responsibility for damaging a significant oil terminal on Saturday near the Russian port of Novorossiysk, owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Kazakhstan told Ukraine on Sunday to stop attacking the Black Sea terminal. The CPC pipeline, which starts in Kazakhstan and ends on the Novorossisyk terminal, handles a big proportion of Kazakhstan’s oil exports.
“We view what has occurred as an motion harming the bilateral relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and we expect the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to stop similar incidents in the long run,” Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
—Associated Press author Elise Morton in London contributed to this report.
© 2025 The Canadian Press