“Today, we heard yet another signal from Moscow that they are preparing to make next year a year of war,” Zelensky stressed in his regular evening address, after Putin stated Russia would achieve its goals in its Ukraine offensive, including seizing Ukrainian territories it claims as its own.
A White House official told AFP Wednesday that US and Russian officials will meet in Miami this weekend for new talks on President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the Ukraine war.
The talks come after Zelensky hailed progress during two days of meetings in Berlin between Kyiv and Trump’s envoys.
Trump’s roving envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to take part on the US side, while Putin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev is set to be in the Russian delegation, Politico reported.
The White House official did not give details of the US and Russian teams.
There has been a flurry of international diplomacy in recent weeks to end Russia’s nearly four-year-old invasion, with Witkoff and Kushner having met Putin in the Kremlin in November and the Ukrainians and European leaders in Berlin.
But large differences remain all around.
Ukraine and the United States say there has been progress on the question of future security guarantees for Kyiv, but there are disagreements on what territory Ukraine would have to cede.
