Zelenskyy had a phone conversation with the US delegation: The media told what they agreed on
7 December 04:16
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a “long and meaningful phone conversation” with the US delegation in Miami, represented by US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steven Vitkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
“Thank you for a very substantive, constructive conversation,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram on Saturday, December 6, noting that he had held it together with representatives of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks – Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine General Andriy Hnat.
“We paid attention to many aspects and quickly discussed the key points that can guarantee the cessation of bloodshed and remove the threat of a third Russian invasion, as well as the threat of Russia’s failure to fulfill its promises, as it has done many times in the past,” the Ukrainian president said in a statement.
He also noted that the delegations “agreed on the next steps and formats of the conversation.” Zelensky added that “not everything can be discussed over the phone,” and therefore he is now waiting for a detailed report from Umerov and Hnatov.
Axios sources: Vitkoff and Kushner are pushing both Kyiv and Moscow for concessions
Some time after Zelenskyy reported on his phone conversation with the US delegation, Axios, citing anonymous sources, revealed some details of the conversation – according to the publication, it lasted two hours.
“A source with direct knowledge said that Vitkoff and Kushner gathered the opinions of both sides and put pressure on both Putin and Zelensky to make the concessions necessary to reach an agreement,” the article says, adding that, according to the source, “Zelensky was called to the meeting.”
According to Axios, “the discussion of the territorial issue was difficult” as “Russia continues to demand that Ukraine withdraw from the territories of Donbas under its control.” However, Washington is “trying to develop new ideas to solve this problem,” the second source said. On the topic of U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, one of Axios’ sources said that “the two sides have made significant progress and are close to an agreement, but more work needs to be done to ensure that both sides interpret the draft security guarantees in the same way.”
The two representatives of the Ukrainian negotiating team are expected to hold a “briefing for Zelenskiy in London on December 8 to discuss the US proposals,” Axios writes. Further talks and meetings with Vitkoff and Kushner are expected later next week.
The United States and Ukraine: Achieving peace depends on Russia
The day before, the US and Ukrainian delegations held their second meeting in the last two days and the sixth in the last two weeks, as Rustem Umerov reported on social media. The negotiators discussed the results of the recent visit of the US delegation to Russia and the steps that could lead to the end of Russia’s aggressive war, he added, announcing the third meeting in a row on December 6.
During the talks in Miami, Kyiv and Washington concluded that progress in reaching a possible peace agreement directly depends on Moscow. “Both sides agreed that real progress toward an agreement depends on Russia’s willingness to work seriously to secure a long-term peace, including measures to de-escalate and end the killings,” read a statement posted on the X social network that day by Steven Witkoff.
The talks in Miami followed a nearly five-hour meeting between Vitkoff and Kushner with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on December 2, after which the Russian side said there was no “compromise option” for a peace plan. According to one of Axios’ sources, the Americans briefed the Ukrainian delegation in detail about the meeting with Putin and about new ideas that should help bridge the differences between the parties. Although the public positions of Ukraine and Russia appear to be incompatible, US officials still believe in the possibility of compromise even on the most difficult territorial issue, the outlet notes.
