Special envoy Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s point man on Russia-Ukraine war, said Sunday that the weekend’s peace talks in Miami were “productive and constructive” — an upbeat assessment echoed earlier in the day by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Sunday’s talks marked the third day of geopolitical wrangling for the U.S. team led by Mr. Witkoff, President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House staffer Josh Gruenbaum. The American delegation met separately with representatives from Russia, Ukraine and some European countries.
“Over the last three days in Florida, the Ukrainian delegation held a series of productive and constructive meetings with American and European partners,” Mr. Witkoff said in a post on X.
The discussions at a luxury resort in Florida focused on a U.S.-backed “20-point plan” to end the conflict. Members of Mr. Witkoff’s delegation met with Russian counterparts on Friday and Saturday.
Mr. Witkoff said Ukraine and the U.S. are hashing out security guarantees and the role the U.S. would play in enforcing those, as well as an economic development plan for recovery.
Mr. Witkoff said Ukraine “remains fully committed to achieving a just and sustainable peace.” He made no mention of Russia’s role in his statement.
In a video post on X, Mr. Zelenskyy said it was a “significant diplomatic week” for Ukraine and that coming out of the weekend, the involved countries will counties will continue “work on the documents on ending the war.”
“They are going through each point in detail,” Mr. Zelenskyy said of his team in Florida. “There is constructive engagement with the American side.”
He cautioned, though, that the negotiations had to move past being “a rhetorical or political game” and that Russia continues to inflict damage on the battlefield while participating in peace talks.
Moscow’s top negotiator told reporters on Saturday that talks were moving “constructively” and that they will continue.
“The discussions are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and will continue today, and will also continue tomorrow,” Kiril Dmitriev said.
Despite the optimism in Florida, the bloodshed continued in Ukraine.
A Russian missile strike in the port city of Odessa killed eight and wounded 27 others on Saturday, according to Ukraine’s emergency services.
The strike added strain on negotiations already under the shadow of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments on Friday, claiming that his military’s troops were advancing. Mr. Putin said that he’s confident that Russia will achieve its goals in Ukraine.
Mr. Putin claimed that Ukraine is “retreating in all sectors” on Friday during his annual news conference. He also claimed that Russian troops were “advancing all across the line of contact.”
The night of the event, Ukrainian forces reportedly struck an airbase in Sevastopol, Crimea, destroying two Russian fighter jets. Ukraine also reported striking Russian oil assets that same night in the Caspian Sea.
Ukraine has also expanded its reach in trying to impact Russian supply lines, striking an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea, just off the Eastern coast of Crete, according to a video published by the Ukraine Security Service.
Experts have marked Friday’s strike as the first in international waters to come from the conflict.
“Ukraine just proved that it can hunt down tankers far from its shores,” Peter Doran, an adjunct senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said in a statement. “Kyiv has a legitimate right to stop this energy network. Its latest strike puts every country and company still bankrolling Putin’s war machine on notice.”
Russian troops made no major advances in Ukraine over the weekend, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
• John T. Seward can be reached at jseward@washingtontimes.com.
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