President Donald Trump says there's a “good chance” for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, but his negotiators have hard work ahead — they now head to the Kremlin and still need to iron out key details with Kyiv.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff was set to travel to Moscow to meet with Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, after what the United States described as “very productive” talks Sunday with Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was rallying European support in Paris, though he cautioned that some “tough issues” still have to be worked out with Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled last week that he was ready to have a “serious” conversation after Kyiv and its allies demanded changes to the peace plan but has shown little sign of stepping away from his hard-line demands that formed the basis of the original 28-point proposal backed by Trump.
Before that, Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in Florida with a delegation from Ukraine, which has been damaged by the removal of its top negotiator in a corruption scandal.
“So much work remains,” Rubio told reporters after meeting with Kyiv’s team, now led by Rustem Umerov, a senior official and former defense minister. “But today was again a very productive and useful session where I think additional progress was made,” Rubio said.
In a separate statement on Facebook, Umerov said “substantial progress” had been achieved in “advancing a dignified peace and in converging our positions with the American side.”
Neither Rubio nor Umerov gave specifics of what was discussed.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One late Sunday, Trump said Ukraine's "corruption situation" amid the peace negotiations was "not helpful." Asked if it was impeding talks, he said there was a "good chance we could make a deal."
Zelenskyy called the talks “very constructive” in a post on X on Monday but added: “There are some tough issues that still have to be worked through.”
He was on a diplomatic offensive in Europe, meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
"The main focus was on negotiations to end the war and on security guarantees," Zelenskyy said after the meeting. "Peace must become truly durable."
He later said that he spoke with Witkoff, alongside Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, adding that it was an "important briefing, and we agreed to discuss more details in person." He then spoke with a host of European leaders to discuss the U.S. talks and security guarantees, he said.
It could be a pivotal week for diplomacy, said Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief.
"It is clear that Russia does not want peace, and therefore we need to make Ukraine as strong as possible in order then to be ready to stand up for themselves in this very, very difficult time," Kallas told reporters Monday.
The talks in Florida follow last weekend’s agreements in Geneva, where Trump's original 28-point peace plan to end the war was modified to make it more palatable to Ukraine and its backers in Europe.
It was initially widely seen as catering to Moscow's demands, without forcing it make any substantial concessions.
Putin said last week he had received this version and it could serve as a framework for a final peace deal. However, he also indicated that he was not keen to negotiate with the current “illegitimate” Ukrainian government.
He said fighting would only stop when Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they hold, showing little sign of compromise on the core issue of Ukrainian territorial concessions centered on the eastern Donbas region.
“If they don’t withdraw, we will achieve this by force,” Putin said.
