Ukrainian negotiators are meeting with US officials in Florida to discuss details of Washington's proposed framework for ending Russia's war in Ukraine, as Kiev faces pressure on military and political fronts.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, will sit down with a Ukrainian delegation on Sunday ahead of planned U.S. talks this week in Moscow with Vladimir Putin.
And Rustem Umerov, secretary of the national security and defense council in Ukraine, posted a photo of the meeting on X and described it as focused on "steps towards achieving a just peace."
The talks will focus on the details of a draft framework to end the war, more than three years after Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The US has trimmed an initial draft after criticism from Kiev and Europe that it was too favorable to Russia, but the content of the latest proposals remains unclear.
Witkoff, a New York real estate developer turned Trump official, is expected to travel to Moscow next week.
The original 28-point US-Russia plan was drafted last month by Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special envoy, and Witkoff.
He called on Ukraine to withdraw from the cities it controls in the eastern Donbas region, to limit the size of its army and not to join NATO.
Washington's original proposal - drafted without input from Ukraine's European allies - would have involved Kiev's withdrawal from its eastern Donetsk region and de facto recognition of Donetsk, Crimea and Luhansk by the US as part of Russia.
But during negotiations last weekend in Switzerland - led by Rubio and Ukrainian negotiators - the plan was significantly revised.
Kiev and its European partners say the existing front line should be the starting point for territorial discussions.
They say there can be no recognition of land seized by Russia militarily and that Kiev must make its own decisions about whether to join the EU and NATO - something the Kremlin wants to veto or impose conditions on.
