By Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff held productive talks with Ukraine’s senior negotiator Rustem Umerov in Miami, Florida on Thursday, a White House official said, with the officials slated to meet again later Friday.
“Yesterday’s meeting between American and Ukrainian representatives in Miami was productive, and progress was made. They will reconvene later today after briefing their respective leaders,” a White House official said. No further details were immediately available.
Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met their Ukrainian counterparts to brief them on their meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, said a second source, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The meetings, which are taking place at an undisclosed location in Miami, were not formal negotiation sessions focused on a U.S.-backed peace plan, the source added. Ukrainian and U.S. officials agreed to the talks before the Putin meeting.
Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy adviser, on Friday said Putin and Witkoff had achieved a level of understanding that made their discussions “truly friendly.”
Putin met Witkoff and Kushner for five hours in the Kremlin, focusing on a U.S.-backed plan for a settlement of the war in Ukraine, where Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. Putin later described the talks as “very useful.”
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Cynthia Osterman)
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