High-ranking officials from Ukraine and several European capitals have flown to Miami for a new round of US-hosted negotiations aimed at ending Russia's full-scale invasion. The talks, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, come as Russian strikes continue to batter Ukrainian cities and kill civilians, and as both sides brace for what is expected to be the harshest winter of the war.
The meetings will be led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the US special envoys, who have recently travelled to Moscow and Kyiv. Their discussions will focus on options to break a diplomatic impasse that has persisted for months. Among the proposals is a targeted ceasefire covering the Black Sea – a vital corridor for grain exports to low-income countries – and/or energy infrastructure, which Moscow has struck relentlessly. Ukraine has responded with its own attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking to journalists via a voice note on Thursday, expressed cautious optimism while acknowledging the difficulty of predicting Russian behaviour. "I'm not yet ready to say what might be realistic or more realistic. In principle, I understand, but I don't want to say anything, only for Russia, as always, to do the opposite just to be spiteful," he said. He added that he had spoken three times with the American side in recent days and hoped for a positive outcome from the meeting.
Zelenskyy's negotiating team will include Kyrylo Budanov, head of the president's office; Sergiy Kyslytsya, his deputy; Davyd Arakhamia, leader of the ruling party in parliament; and Rustem Umerov, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service. They are expected to return to Kyiv on Monday morning to brief the president. Ahead of the trip, Budanov wrote on social media: "There are things we cannot talk about, but we must remain wise, united, and support our military. Peace is not achieved through grand statements – it's hard, collaborative work, and we're working on it."
European presence and security guarantees
The European side will be represented by the national security advisors of France, Germany and the United Kingdom – the so-called E3, which leads the "Coalition of the Willing" to provide future security guarantees for Ukraine. The European Commission will also take part, a spokesperson confirmed, and NATO has sent its chief of staff, Geoffrey van Leeuwen. Russia will not be present.
The Miami meeting follows reports that Washington is exploring business deals with Moscow that could be signed even before a final peace agreement. Those reports have alarmed Kyiv and European capitals, which fear that economic interests might overshadow diplomacy in the White House's approach. Zelenskyy took issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recent comment that the war was stuck in a "diplomatic stalemate" with a risk of escalation. "One cannot, on the one hand, negotiate with the Russians about future economic projects, whilst on the other hand say that we find ourselves in some sort of diplomatic stalemate," he said during a visit to the site of a Russian attack.
Zelenskyy also urged the US to expand the use of Starlink satellite services inside Russian territory to help Ukraine target ballistic-missile launchers. European officials have actively engaged in the US-led process, arguing that their own security architecture is directly at stake. Following the cut-off of American aid, Europe has become the main provider of financial and military support for Ukraine, including new funding for Ukrainian-made drones and munitions.
Yet scepticism about Moscow's intentions runs deep. The Kremlin has again dismissed the possibility of a trilateral meeting at the leaders' level. "We cannot have our vested hopes in (these talks) because we don't see that Russia is ready at all to negotiate in good faith," a senior EU official said on Friday. The talks in Miami are seen as a test of whether the US can translate its diplomatic engagement into concrete progress, even as the war continues to inflict heavy civilian casualties. For Ukraine, the priority is to secure a partial ceasefire that could reduce the suffering of its people and stabilise global food supplies, while European leaders watch closely for signs that Washington's economic overtures to Moscow will not undermine the broader peace effort.
