Ukrainian negotiators heading to the United States for a new round of talks to end the war with Russia will discuss a comprehensive new plan to help break the ongoing impasse in the conflict, a senior administration official told NBC News.
The talks starting Friday and led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are the latest attempt to negotiate a settlement amid intensifying deadly aerial attacks on both sides of the border.
The discussions will center on “a new, unified proposal that is focused on all aspects of the conflict to try to end the war,” the senior administration official said Thursday evening.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation will travel to the U.S. for two days of negotiations, and include Rustem Umerov, the head of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service, and Kyrylo Budanov, who heads the office of the president.
Zelenskyy acknowledged a possible new phase in the negotiations.
“We see on the part of the United States of America, an intensification of talks and meetings,” he told reporters, without mentioning any new proposals. “I myself have spoken with the American side three times in recent days, and I hope for a good result from our negotiators’ meeting.”
Trump had vowed to swiftly end the conflict that began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. Despite numerous meetings and talks to broker a ceasefire since he took office, the two sides have been locked in a stalemate over the industrial region of Donbas in Ukraine’s east.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he wants to seize the entire region, parts of which Kyiv’s forces still hold. Zelenskyy has ruled out ceding this territory, arguing that Putin could use it as a base to again attack Ukraine. Russia currently occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Thursday that stalemates are “very dangerous” because they either end in a negotiated settlement or escalation. In the context of Ukraine, that “could wind up being a sabotage campaign in neighboring countries that are members of NATO,” he said.
European leaders are growing increasingly concerned about Russia escalating and expanding the conflict onto the continent.
“In the end, we do not believe that there is a military solution to this conflict, to this war. We think this war needs to end in a negotiated settlement,” Rubio said. “The sooner, the better.”
In separate comments to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Rubio said “there don’t seem to be prospects of a negotiated settlement” on peace in Ukraine right now. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by saying he agreed with Rubio’s assessment, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
The U.S. diplomatic efforts to end the war were revived last month when Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Moscow and, for the first time, Kyiv. No major breakthroughs were announced.
The White House has previously repeated some of Putin’s hard-line demands and tried to push Kyiv for concessions.
Putin explained the invasion by saying Russia was trying to demilitarize Ukraine and overthrow Kyiv’s government, which he said is driven by “Nazi ideology” — a common Kremlin propaganda line.
What was supposed to be a swift military operation to topple Zelenskyy and replace him with a pro-Kremlin government quickly foundered, leaving the capture of Donbas as Putin’s only option to claim a significant victory in Ukraine.
