US President Donald Trump expressed optimism Sunday after a high-level meeting between US officials and a Ukrainian delegation in Miami, suggesting there was a “good chance” of a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that talks were “going well and progressing well.”
“I think there’s a good chance we can reach an agreement,” he added.
His comments came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced the peace talks as fragile and stressed that Russia would play a central role in any agreement.
“This is sensitive and complicated,” Rubio told reporters after the meeting, which also included special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“There are a lot of moving parts and obviously there are other parties involved here and they need to be part of the equation,” Rubio said.
The Secretary of State described the meeting in Miami as a “very productive and informative meeting…further progress was made”, but warned that more work remained. He said the administration’s diplomatic pressure would increase this week.
Witkov will travel to Moscow on Monday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a U.S. official told CNN.
Rubio said U.S. officials “have been in contact with the Russian side to varying degrees, and we have a pretty good understanding of their perspective.”
The top U.S. diplomat said the two teams are working not only to end the fighting between Ukraine and Russia, but also “the conditions for building Ukraine’s long-term prosperity.”
Before the talks began, Rubio said the goal of the negotiations was to forge “a path forward that leaves Ukraine with sovereignty, independence and prosperity.”
Rustem Umerov, head of the Ukrainian delegation, said the meeting was “productive and successful” and built on the success of the previous U.S.-Ukraine meeting in Geneva.
“Our goal is a rich and strong Ukraine. We discussed all the issues important to Ukraine, and the United States was very cooperative,” Umerov told reporters.
Umerov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, was named head of the Ukraine team on Friday after Andriy Yermak, the powerful chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, resigned amid a corruption scandal.
Ukraine is seeking international security guarantees as part of an agreement to end the war and a ceasefire on the current front lines. It refused to cede territory not already occupied by Russian forces.
But Putin was willing to make few concessions, saying the war would end only “when Ukrainian forces withdraw from the occupied territories.”
Mr. Rubio met with Ukrainian negotiators in Geneva over the weekend, during which significant revisions were made to the original 28-point blueprint drawn up by Mr. Vitkov and Kirill Dmitriev, head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund and special envoy to the Kremlin.
Ukraine’s European allies said the original plan, which was seen as highly favorable to Russia, would require “additional work”.
Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said last week that the Kremlin had received an updated version of the plan.
“It’s not official, but we have the document. We haven’t discussed it with anyone yet, because its contents require really serious analysis and discussion,” Ushakov said.
President Trump backed away from imposing any deadline after indicating he hoped Ukraine would agree to a deal by last Thursday.
“Do you know what the deadline is for me? Once it’s over,” he said.
The negotiations are taking place against a backdrop of persistent Russian missile and drone attacks on cities and infrastructure across Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Sunday that Russia used about 1,400 attack drones, 1,100 guided air bombs and 66 missiles in attacks last week.
Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to target Russia’s energy and defense infrastructure with long-range drones and indigenous missiles. Ukraine also used maritime drones in attacks on two licensed oil tankers used to transport Russian oil in the Black Sea on Friday and Saturday.
Two tankers flying Gambian flags were damaged but did not sink.
As negotiations continued, Valery Zarzhiny, Ukraine’s former military chief of staff who is seen as a potential rival to President Zelenskiy, told the Daily Telegraph Sunday: “Wars do not necessarily end with one side’s victory and the other’s defeat.”
“While we Ukrainians strive for complete victory, we cannot reject the option of ending the war in the long term,” Zarzhny wrote.
