US, Ukraine officials say they'll meet for 3rd day after progress on
creating a security framework
[December 06, 2025]
By AAMER MADHANI and ILLIA NOVIKOV
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian
officials say they’ll meet for a third day of talks on Saturday after
making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar
Ukraine.
The two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress
toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to
show serious commitment to long-term peace.”
The statement from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law
Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy
Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They
offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been
made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-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
U.S.–Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.”
The U.S. and Ukrainian officials also discussed “deterrence
capabilities” that Ukraine will need “to sustain a lasting peace.”
Witkoff and Kushner’s talks in Florida with Umerov, Ukraine’s lead
negotiator, and Hnatov follow discussions between President Vladimir
Putin and the U.S. envoys at the Kremlin on Tuesday.
Friday's session took place at the the Shell Bay Club in Hallandale
Beach, a high-end private golf and lifestyle destination owned by
Witkoff's real estate development company.
Previous diplomatic attempts to break the deadlock have come to nothing
and the war has continued unabated. Officials largely have kept a lid on
how the latest talks are going, though Trump's initial 28-point plan was
leaked.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s delegation in
Florida wanted to hear from the U.S. side about the talks at the
Kremlin.
Zelenskyy, as well as European leaders backing him, have repeatedly
accused Putin of stalling in peace talks while the Russian army tries to
press forward with its invasion. Zelenskyy said in a video address late
Thursday that officials wanted to know “what other pretexts Putin has
come up with to drag out the war and to pressure Ukraine.”
Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Friday, Kremlin foreign
affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov praised Kushner as potentially playing an
important role in ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ushakov also took
part in Tuesday's talks at the Kremlin.
“If any plan leading to a settlement is put on paper, it will be the pen
of Mr. Kushner that will lead the way,” Ushakov said.
The flattering comments about Kushner by the senior Russian official
come as Putin has sought to sow division between Trump and Ukraine and
Europe at a moment when Trump's impatience with the conflict is
mounting. Putin said his five-hour talks this week with Witkoff and
Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but some proposals were
unacceptable.
Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, was a senior adviser
to Trump during his first term and was the president's point person on
developing the Abraham Accords, which formalized commercial and
diplomatic ties between Israel and a trio of Arab nations.
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Ukraine's Secretary
of National Security Rustem Umerov shake hands, on Nov. 30, 2025, in
Hallandale Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)
Kushner has played a more informal role in Trump's second go-around,
but he helped Witkoff close out ceasefire and hostage negotiations
between Israel and Hamas this fall. Trump tapped Kushner again to
pair up with Witkoff to try to find an endgame to Russia's invasion
of Ukraine.
The European take on the peace talks
Ushakov, who accompanied Putin on a visit to India on Friday,
repeated the Russian president's 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.
Kyiv’s allies in Europe are “constantly putting forward demands that
are unacceptable to Moscow,” Ushakov told Russia’s state-owned
Zvezda TV. “Putting it mildly, the Europeans don’t help Washington
and Moscow reach a settlement on the Ukrainian issues.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that 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,” 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.
“The unity between Americans and Europeans on the Ukrainian issue is
essential. And I say it, repeat it, emphasize it. We need to work
together,” Macron said.
The latest drone attacks
Russian drones struck a house in central Ukraine, killing a
12-year-old boy, officials said, while long-range Ukrainian strikes
reportedly targeted a Russian port and an oil refinery.
The Russian attack on Thursday night in Ukraine’s central
Dnipropetrovsk region destroyed the house where the boy was killed
and also two women were injured, according to the head of the
regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko.
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 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of
the border with Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said only that its air defenses
intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea,
which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
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Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. John Leicester in Paris and
Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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