 "A local resident and firefighters look on at a fire in a damaged private house following a drone attack to Kyiv on November 29, 2025, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Image- AFP")
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Ukrainian negotiators in Florida on Sunday for talks on Washington’s plan to end Russia’s war against its neighbour, a US official said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had announced earlier Saturday that a delegation was en route to the United States for this purpose. Umerov has been put in charge of the Ukrainian delegation after the previous lead negotiator, Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday, hours after anti-corruption detectives searched his apartment.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will also attend the meeting.
Zelenskyy said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the U.S. in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out” on Sunday.
The Geneva meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counter-offer to proposals laid out by U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll to leaders in Kyiv almost two weeks ago.
"Rustem delivered a report today, and the task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war," Zelenskyy wrote on X.
U.S. President Donald Trump last week released a plan for ending the nearly four-year war. The 28-point proposal heavily favoured Russia, prompting Zelenskyy to quickly engage with American negotiators. European leaders, fearing for their own future in the face of Russian aggression, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.
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View AllTrump said Tuesday that his plan to end the war had been “fine-tuned” and that he’s sending envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia to meet with Putin and U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials. He suggested he could eventually meet with Putin and Zelenskyy, but not until further progress has been made in negotiations.
Ukraine is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal while Zelenskyy finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation since the early days of Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Meanwhile, Russian drone and missile attacks in and around the Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said, as the country’s representatives travelled to the U.S. to work on a renewed push to end the war.
With inputs from agencies