Ukraine-Russia war latest: Rubio says meeting with Kyiv delegates ‘producti

A delegation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisers and top officials met with lead U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami on Sunday ahead of a trip to meet with Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday.

On the agenda is the 28-point peace plan proposed by the U.S. this month, which has drawn apparent skepticism from both Ukraine and its European allies, given reports that it drew heavily from a Russian-authored plan submitted to the State Department in October.

Ukraine’s secretary of national security had thanked the US and its officials for their support earlier on Sunday.

“US is hearing us, US is supporting us, US is walking besides us,” Rustem Umerov said in English before the talks began.

After the meeting, he declared it productive. “We discussed all the important matters that are important for Ukraine, for Ukrainian people and US was super supportive,” he said.

A meeting between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida on Sunday was “very productive,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, adding that work still remains towards ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week, when Mr. Witkoff travels to Moscow, although we’ve also been in touch in varying degrees with the Russian side, but we have a pretty good understanding of their views as well,” Mr Rubio told reporters.

Territorial disagreements remain key sticking points as Russia and Ukraine tentatively advance peace negotiations.

Russia currently occupies 20 per cent of Ukraine, and wants further control over more of major regions including the Donbas.

Marco Rubio has said the peace talks hope to create a path to leave Ukraine “sovereign, independent and prosperous”.

Speaking as the talks begin, the secretary of state said: “This is not just about ending a war. This is about ending a war in a way that creates a mechanism and a way forward that will allow them to be independent and sovereign, never have another war again, and create tremendous prosperity for its people.

“Not just rebuild the country, but to enter an era of extraordinary economic progress.”

Following Rubio’s statement, Ukraine’s security chief Rustem Umerov said the delegation was “working to secure real peace for Ukraine” and thanked Donald Trump’s “initiative for peace”.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has cancelled a meeting with Viktor Orban after the Hungarian prime minister met with Putin in Moscow to discuss energy ties between the two countries last Friday.

The leaders were due to meet on Thursday, a day after the summit of the Visegrad Group in Hungary, where the leaders of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia will meet.

Marcin Przydacz, head of the international policy office of the Polish presidency, said: “President K. Nawrocki decided to limit the program of his visit to Hungary exclusively to the summit of the presidents of the Visegrad Group.

“Europe’s security depends on solidarity action, including in the field of energy.”

Sir Keir Starmer spoke to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Sunday morning ahead of key peace talks that are taking place in the US today.

“The leaders began by taking stock of the situation in Ukraine,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

While peace talks in recent days had gained momentum, the focus had to be on securing a just and lasting peace for Ukraine, they said.

“The leaders discussed the work being done by the Coalition of the Willing to prepare for a cessation of hostilities and welcomed the close coordination between the grouping and NATO on next steps.”

Vladimir Putin’s “whole economy, his whole society, his whole politics, his whole preservation of self revolves around having this war go on”, Fiona Hill, who was Donald Trump’s adviser on Russia in his first presidential term, has told The Independent in an exclusive interview.

Kazakhstan sharply criticised Ukraine on Sunday after a drone strike damaged a key Black Sea terminal belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which transports more than 1 per cent of the world’s oil.

The CPC announced on Saturday that it had suspended operations after a mooring at its Novorossiysk terminal suffered significant damage in what it described as a Ukrainian naval drone attack.

Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry lodged a formal protest, denouncing “yet another deliberate attack on the critical infrastructure of the international Caspian Pipeline Consortium in the waters of the Port of Novorossiysk”.

“This incident marks the third act of aggression against an exclusively civilian facility whose operation is protected under international law,” the ministry said.