President Donald Trump's advisers held talks on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and national security advisers from the UK, France, and Germany to discuss the next steps in ending Russia's war in Ukraine, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said.
"We focused on how to move the discussions forward in a practical way on behalf of @POTUS' peace process, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not restart," Witkoff said in a social media post.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Ukraine's top negotiator Rustem Umerov also participated.
Zelensky said on Tuesday that national security advisers from Kyiv's "Coalition of the Willing" backers would meet in Ukraine on Saturday, and then country leaders would gather in France on January 6.
The Coalition grouping led by Britain and France includes more than 30 nations, though it was not immediately clear which would participate in the meetings.
Zelensky said on Thursday that he spoke with Witkoff and Kushner for about an hour about how to end the war with Russia.
"It was a really good conversation: many details, good ideas, that we discussed. There are some new ideas on how to bring the real peace closer, and it concerns formats, meetings, and, certainly, the timeline," Zelensky said on the Telegram app.
Trump has been pushing for a deal to end the almost four-year-long war, and in recent weeks, peace efforts led by Witkoff and Kushner have been slowly inching forward.
Ukrainian negotiator Umerov says Kyiv coordinated positions with US, Europe in talks with security advisers
Umerov said that Kyiv coordinated positions with the US and its European allies in telephone talks with security advisers.
Umerov, writing on Telegram, said he "reported" to Zelensky on the telephone talks.
"We coordinated positions and planned further meetings with European and American partners in January," Umerov wrote. Work would continue in the New Year to produce "tangible" results in work to resolve the war pitting Ukraine against Russia.
Russia accuses Ukraine of attacking Putin's residence
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Ukraine had tried to attack President Vladimir Putin's residence in the Novgorod region and so Moscow's negotiating position would change, Interfax reported.
Lavrov said that on December 28-29, Ukraine had attacked the Russian president's state residence in the Novgorod region with 91 long-range drones.
"Such reckless actions will not go unanswered," Lavrov was quoted as saying.