Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are due to meet Ukrainian negotiators in Miami on October 9 to discuss ideas for ending the war. Reuters and Associated Press reported the planned talks, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the delegation would meet US representatives for two days starting Friday.
The agenda is expected to include possible steps toward a partial halt to attacks on energy infrastructure and grain shipments. Axios, citing a US source, reported that Kyiv was willing to consider such a move, while Moscow had shown little readiness for it. Zelensky said it was too early to judge what arrangements might be realistic.
Axios reported that officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, as well as NATO and the European Union, had also been invited. The US administration hopes to make diplomatic progress before the November midterm elections and the start of winter. A source told Axios that Washington was trying to mediate and develop a unified proposal, warning that winter would be difficult for Ukraine if the war continued.
The Lenta report also recalled an earlier statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who thanked the US president for his efforts to resolve the conflict and said he believed those efforts were sincere. No outcome from the Miami talks had been announced at the time of publication.