Witkoff and Kushner head to Miami to 'debrief' Ukrainian officials as peace talks with Russia fail

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the duo that has been leading negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, will meet Kyiv officials in Miami on Thursday to debrief them about their recent largely unfruitful talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Witkoff and Kushner will meet Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov and chief of the general staff Andriy Hnatov to advance the peace talks after Moscow indicated that they will not budge on territories in the process of ending the war.

A senior Ukrainian official highlighted that Thursday’s meeting will be a “debrief by the Americans” and not “a negotiation session", adding that deal talks will commence once the delegation goes back to Ukraine.

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‘No compromise’

Putin met Witkoff and Kushner for nearly five hours earlier this week, in what have been described as “constructive” discussions on the US peace plan. The Kremlin, however, said that  “no compromise” was reached on territory, a key sticking point in the plan.

Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, said that while the talks between Witkoff and Putin were “useful”, there is a “lot of work” ahead. Speaking to Russian media shortly after the meeting ended, the Russian foreign policy adviser said there is still “no compromise version” of a plan for Ukraine. He noted that some US proposals are acceptable to Russia, while others are not.

Putin met the officials for nearly five hours, according to a report by the New York Times. However, the meeting failed to yield any substantial results on the peace deal brokered by the US.

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The negotiators went over the substance of the US peace proposals but did not discuss the wording of any provisions, reach concrete compromises, or agree to a new Putin-Trump summit, Ushakov said.

“The discussion was very useful, constructive and very substantive and lasted for not five minutes but five hours," he said.

The official further said that Putin had gone over the US proposals that the Kremlin had received in four documents ahead of the meeting.

On occupied Ukrainian territories, “so far we haven’t found a compromise, but some American solutions can be discussed. Some proposed formulations do not fit us, and work will continue,” Ushakov added.