US, Ukraine peace meeting ‘constructive’, further talks set to discuss postwar security framework

US President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials say they will meet for a third day of talks after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Ukraine’s senior negotiator Rustem Umerov and General Andriy Hnatov, Ukraine’s military chief of general staff, for what both sides called “constructive discussions on advancing a credible pathway toward a durable and just peace in Ukraine.”

At Friday’s meeting, the group’s sixth of the past two weeks, Mr Umerov underscored that Ukraine’s priority is to secure a settlement that protects its independence and sovereignty, ensures the safety of Ukrainians, and provides a stable foundation for a prosperous democratic future, the State Department and Umerov said in a joint statement.

They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Mr Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a US-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.

“Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings,” the statement said.

“Parties also separately reviewed the future prosperity agenda which aims to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, joint US-Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.”

The participants discussed the results of Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week, and steps that would help end the war, it said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country’s delegation in Florida wanted to hear from the US side about the talks at the Kremlin.

Mr Zelensky said in a video address that officials wanted to know “what other pretexts Putin has come up with to drag out the war and to pressure Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov repeated the Russian leaders’ recent criticism of Europe’s stance on the peace talks.

Kyiv’s European allies are concerned about possible Russian aggression beyond Ukraine and want a prospective peace deal to include strong security guarantees.

Ukraine’s allies in Europe are “constantly putting forward demands that are unacceptable to Moscow,” Ushakov told Russia’s state-owned Zvezda TV on Friday.

“Putting it mildly, the Europeans don’t help Washington and Moscow reach a settlement on the Ukrainian issues.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said he made progress during a visit to Beijing on getting Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s support for peace efforts.

“We exchanged deeply and truthfully on all points, and I saw a willingness from the (Chinese) president to contribute to stability and peace,” Mr Macron said.

The French President said he stressed that Ukraine needs guarantees that Russia won’t attack it again if a settlement is reached and that Europe must have a voice in negotiations.

On the battlefront, Russian drones struck a house in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, killing a 12-year-old boy and injuring two women.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 137 drones of various types during the night.

Ukrainian drones attacked a port and an oil refinery inside Russia overnight as part of Kyiv’s campaign to disrupt Russian logistics, Ukraine’s general staff said.

The drones struck Temriuk sea port in Russia’s Krasnodar region and the Syzran oil refinery in the Samara region, starting blazes, a statement said. Syzran is about 800km east of the border with Ukraine.

with Reuters