Ukraine’s top negotiator is scheduled to meet with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Florida on Thursday, two days after the U.S.’s high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, according to a senior U.S. administration official.
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is also expected to be at the meeting with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, the official said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Wednesday that preparations for new talks were underway, but did not reveal when the talks were expected.
In this collective photo distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, US special envoy Steve Witkoff is seen accompanied by the Kremlin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev before a meeting with the president of Russia at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 2, 2025.
Kristina Kormilitsyna/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
“We are preparing meetings in the United States. After the American team returns from Moscow and after relevant consultations in Washington, Rustem Umerov, Andrii Hnatov and the rest of the negotiating team will continue talks with President Trump’s envoys,” Zelensky said on social media.
Few details were released about what had been discussed during the five-hour meeting between Witfkoff, Kushner and Putin, but post-talk comments from Washington and Moscow were mostly positive. Both sides acknowledged that more work would need to be done to make the deal acceptable to both kyiv and Moscow.
Rescuers work at the site of apartment buildings hit by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Slaviansk, Ukraine, December 3, 2025.
Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had found some terms “unacceptable” but added that others were fine with Moscow. And Trump described it as a “reasonably good meeting.”
Trump said Witkoff and Kushner conveyed their “impression” that Putin “would like the war to end.”
Both Russia and Ukraine continued their long-range strike campaigns overnight Thursday.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 138 drones and two missiles into the country overnight, of which 114 were shot down or suppressed. Two missiles and 24 drones hit 14 locations, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down at least 76 Ukrainian drones overnight, one of which was destroyed over the Moscow region.
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
