Zelensky had ‘difficult’ talk with US negotiators about Ukraine territorial issues: Report

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a “difficult” phone call with US negotiators discussing Ukraine’s territorial issues and security guarantees against Russia, according to a report.

Zelensky described the two-hour talk on Saturday with US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as “long and substantive.”

He claimed in a statement posted on X that he was “determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace.”

His conversation with Witkoff and Kushner took place after the two concluded two days of talks with Zelensky’s representative Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, in Miami, Florida. Ukrainian military representatives also joined the call from Miami.

In the conference call, they discussed territorial issues and how to ensure that Russia sticks to any potential deal to end the Ukraine war.

According to Axios, the discussion about territory was “difficult,” as Kiev has rejected Russia’s key demand to withdraw troops from parts of the Donbass that Ukraine continues to occupy. The US has been “trying to develop new ideas to bridge the issue,” the publication cited an unnamed source as saying.

Until now, the sides have made no progress in reaching a peace deal for Ukraine.

US envoy's meeting with Putin ends with no breakthrough on Ukraine war

A five-hour meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff ends without any compromise on a plan to resolve the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

The US envoy also said in a statement published on Friday that the talks with Umerov and General Andriy Hnatov, the Ukrainian military’s chief of general staff in Miami, were “constructive.”

Witkoff and Umerov “agreed on the framework of security arrangements” and “discussed necessary deterrence capabilities to sustain a lasting peace,” the statement said without giving details.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had received Witkoff and Kushner in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

The five-hour meeting between them concluded without any agreement on a plan to resolve the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said that although the sides had disagreements, the conversations between them were “very useful and constructive.”

The talks with the US envoy were “extremely useful, constructive, and highly informative,” Ushakov said on Wednesday.

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However, he acknowledged without disclosing details of the conversation that Moscow and Washington remain “no closer” to a peace deal.

He said that the main bone of contention between the warring sides continues to be Ukraine’s territorial issues.

Russia has been pressing Ukraine to cede control of hundreds of square kilometers of land, a demand rejected by Zelensky.

“Without addressing territorial issues, we see no resolution to the crisis,” Ushakov said.

Trump has previously hinted that Ukraine could have to make territorial concessions to Russia if it wanted peace, arguing that Moscow would eventually take full control of the Donbass.

However, Zelensky insists if the US-led European NATO member states continue to back Kiev, the future concessions will go to the Western side.

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