Steve Witkoff, the special envoy for President Trump, had a follow-up meeting without Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meeting with Ukraine’s chief negotiator. He was persuaded that Ukraine might accept a peace proposal that heavily favors Russia.
Witkoff’s conversation with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, followed a sit-in the day before, which included the complete U.S. and Ukrainian delegations, as confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday.
In a previous meeting in Miami, they discussed a 28-point plan that would require Ukraine to agree to certain conditions, including U.S. recognition of some territories in Ukraine as Russian—territories that Russia hasn’t managed to seize in over a decade of war.
A revised 19-point plan laid out by both countries in Geneva last week rolled back that particular proposal, leaving the territorial disputes for Presidents Trump and Zelenskiy to work out.
Interestingly, the land issue wasn’t even on the table during Sunday’s main session, as reported by a source who attended.
However, there were “difficult” negotiations behind the scenes involving Witkoff, Rubio, and Jared Kushner from the U.S. side, along with key Ukrainian military officials, including General Andriy Khnatov and Deputy Director of Military Intelligence Vadim Skibitsky.
After their meeting, Umerov reached out to Zelensky to discuss the outcomes. The president expressed that any future land discussions must also prioritize Ukraine’s security after the conflict ends.
“Ukraine needs certainty about when the war will conclude. Only then can we guarantee our security and prevent further aggression,” Zelenskiy remarked, emphasizing its importance.
During their Florida meeting, Umerov suggested to Witkoff that Ukraine was ready to accept “the majority” of the 28-point plan while also proposing terms for granting amnesty for Russia’s known war crimes in Ukraine, according to a senior U.S. official.
This point, which would allow Ukrainians amnesty concerning any misconduct related to U.S. aid, replaced the initial conditions from Washington that demanded Ukraine conduct a complete audit of all aid received and take legal action against anyone who profited from the war unethically.
The official noted that Umerov’s terms, once they became public, were widely rejected by the Ukrainian populace and characterized as dubious. Another official indicated these terms seemed to reflect what Russia wanted.
Umerov led the Ukrainian delegation after the resignation of Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, following a raid related to a corruption investigation involving detained senior officials in Kiev.
Months of investigation revealed a scheme, dubbed “Operation Midas,” where contractors for Ukraine’s Energoatom were allegedly coerced into paying kickbacks or risk being blacklisted, amounting to nearly $100 million, which might have gone towards repairing and safeguarding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure impacted by the Russian aggression.
President Trump remarked that the corruption trial “doesn’t help” the efforts to resolve the ongoing war.
The Ukrainian delegation plans to leave the U.S. on Monday to brief European leaders.
