{"id":92096,"date":"2025-12-22T04:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/92096\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T04:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:33:14","slug":"witkoff-hails-latest-fla-talks-with-ukraine-eu-officials-as-productive-and-constructive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/92096\/","title":{"rendered":"Witkoff hails latest Fla. talks with Ukraine, EU officials as ‘productive and constructive’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST PALM BEACH \u2014 Talks held between US, European and Ukrainian officials over the last three days in Florida aimed at ending Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine<\/a> were productive and focused on aligning positions, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

President Trump has been pressuring Ukraine and Russia to come to an agreement on ending the nearly four-year-old conflict as soon as possible, but Russia wants to keep the Ukrainian areas it has seized and Kyiv has refused to cede ground.<\/p>\n

After meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev <\/a>on Saturday, Witkoff and Trump adviser Jared Kushner met on Sunday with officials from Ukraine and Europe, and then separately with the Ukrainian delegation, led by senior official Rustem Umerov.<\/p>\n

US special envoy Steve Witkoff called the latest round of talks with Ukrainian and EU officials in Florida \u201cproductive and constructive.\u201d ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

Witkoff, in a social media post, called Sunday\u2019s talks \u201cproductive and constructive\u201d and focused on a \u201cshared strategic approach between Ukraine, the United States and Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not mention his talks with the Russians.<\/p>\n

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Sunday that Ukrainian and European input into the peace proposals under discussion had\u00a0not improved the prospects for peace, but said Dmitriev was scheduled to return to Moscow on Monday and would report to Putin on the outcome of his talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, we will formulate the position with which we will proceed, including in our contacts with the Americans,\u201d Ushakov saidin remarks posted by Kremlin pool journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel.<\/p>\n

The meetings in Miami were the latest in a series of talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine on a US-drafted 20-point plan to end the war.<\/p>\n

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arriving in Berlin for meetings with European leaders to discuss negotiations to end the war in Ukraine on Dec. 15, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Witkoff and Kushner posing with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky and other European leaders on Dec. 15, 2025. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

Witkoff said the US-Ukraine meeting focused on four key points: further development of the 20-point plan, a multilateral security guarantee framework, a US security guarantee framework for Ukraine, and further development on economics and prosperity to rebuild Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Negotiators focused especially on \u201ctimelines\u201d and \u201csequencing of next steps,\u201d Witkoff said.<\/p>\n

US, Ukrainian and European officials earlier this week reported\u00a0progress on security guarantees\u00a0for Kyiv as part of the talks to end the war, but it remains unclear if those terms will be acceptable to Moscow.<\/p>\n

Wiktoff and Kushner meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Dec. 2, 2025. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace must be not only a cessation of hostilities, but also a dignified foundation for a stable future,\u201d Witkoff said.<\/p>\n

Prior to the Miami meeting, US intelligence continued to indicate Putin has not abandoned his ambitions of taking over Ukrainian territory<\/a>, according to six people familiar with the intelligence.<\/p>\n

In response to a\u00a0Reuters report\u00a0on Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on X that US intelligence assessments have shown Russia \u201cdoes not currently have the capability to conquer and occupy all of Ukraine, let alone Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The site of a Russian strike at a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on Dec. 19, 2025. Ukrinform\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

A man visiting a memorial for Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war with Russia in Kyiv on Dec. 21, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close ally of Trump\u2019s, said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet The Press\u201d on Sunday<\/a> it was still unclear if Putin would accept the current deal.<\/p>\n

If he does not, Graham said, the Trump administration should adopt an approach similar to its recent actions with\u00a0oil tankers near Venezuela\u00a0and \u201cseize ships that are carrying sanctioned Russian oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Russian refusal to accept the current proposal should also lead to labeling \u201cRussia a state sponsor of terrorism for kidnapping 20,000 Ukrainian kids,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH \u2014 Talks held between US, European and Ukrainian officials over the last three days in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,99,5767,21553,38754,10645],"class_list":{"0":"post-92096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-ukraine","14":"tag-ukraine-war","15":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}