Washington, Dec. 1 - Steve Witkoff, special envoy of Donald Trump, will travel to Moscow today to continue the negotiation process for the peace plan proposed by the President of the United States to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials completed approximately four hours of talks in Miami the day before, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as "productive and useful."
This Sunday’s session included Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, as well as Ukrainian delegates. However, negotiations will continue this week in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to whom Witkoff and Kushner will present the peace plan that was initially 28 points long but has since been reduced.
The Ukrainian side experienced a significant setback in this process. The chief of staff and main negotiator for President Vladimir Zelensky, Andriy Yermak, who was set to lead his country's delegation, resigned on Friday amid a raid on his residence by anti-corruption authorities.
Yermak, long considered the second most powerful person in Ukraine, sent a text message to his close associates on Sunday saying he was "going to the front" in eastern Ukraine, according to media reports.
The Kyiv delegation, now led by National Security Advisor Rustem Umerov, traveled to Miami for the meeting at Witkoff's exclusive Shell Bay golf club.
A week ago, in Geneva, the parties reached preliminary agreements on all issues except two: territory and security guarantees.
A senior U.S. official - Axios reported - stated that the White House wanted to close the gaps on these last two topics in yesterday's meeting because "the Ukrainians know what we expect from them."
Meanwhile, Russia expressed its welcome for U.S. efforts to find reasonable solutions to the Ukrainian crisis but warned that there can be no talk of any concessions from the Russian side, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
"We welcome the efforts of the administration of President Donald Trump to seek reasonable solutions. Various drafts of this plan are a moment for negotiation," Ryabkov emphasized to the press on Wednesday.
He recalled that Russia's position has remained consistent from the beginning and "relates to different aspects of the current situation and focuses on the causes of the crisis that we have been facing for a long time," he stated.
Trump said he would end the Russia-Ukraine war (which has lasted more than three years) as soon as he arrived at the White House, but acknowledged that it is a complex goal.
