By Janet Ekstract, NEW YORK – Miami was the backdrop for ongoing peace talks between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators concerning a peace proposal agreement with Russia. According to Ukrainian officials, talks have seen very few new developments with questions about security guarantees and territorial issues, remaining major sticking points. The Miami talks began on Thursday, December 4 between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner and Ukrainian officials Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov. As Hnatov said, “difficult issues remain,” with Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S., Olga Stefanishyna said on December 6, “but both sides continue working to shape realistic and acceptable solutions.” As Stefanishyna said: “The main challenges at this stage, concern questions of territory and guarantees, and we are actively seeking optimal formats for addressing them.” She added that there will be more details as information is available. While the original 28-point peace proposal favored Russia, according to multiple sources – the current agreement takes into account Ukraine’s needs despite disagreements over territory control and security for Ukraine. Ukraine’s President Zelensky said that without viable and reliable security guarantees for Ukraine, any peace agreement would not be permanent.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump told the media that his delegation had a “very good meeting” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite the U.S. team having expressed that Putin “would like to see the war ended” – on his recent visit to India, Putin told reporters that Russia’s intention is to seize Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region by any means possible. As analysts and experts know, Putin is notorious for reneging on his promises and agreements so this aspect of the negotiations is being carefully considered. Zelensky said that he did have “long” and “constructive” phone conversations with Witkoff and Kushner, along with his Ukrainian delegation in Miami. He said that “next steps and formats for talks with the United States” were agreed on. He added that “the risk of Russia failing to honor its promises, as has happened repeatedly in the past” was also taken into consideration. On December 8 in London Zelensky will meet with French, British and German leaders to discuss peace and its conditions. French President Emmanuel Macron said talks will focus on “the situation and the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the American mediation.”
