Ukraine's top negotiators to again meet Trump's envoys after Moscow talks, Zelensky says
Ukrainian negotiators will meet European national security advisers in Brussels on Dec. 3 to discuss peace efforts before holding another meeting with U.S. envoys, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, and Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, will brief European officials on Russian-U.S. talks in Moscow on Dec. 2 and "discuss the European component of the necessary security architecture."
The comments follow a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to Moscow to discuss a revised U.S.-Ukraine peace plan with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, who participated in the talks, described the meeting as "very useful, constructive, and highly substantive," but noted that no concrete agreement was reached.
Umerov and Hnatov led the Ukrainian delegation that discussed the U.S.-backed peace plan with Kushner, Witkoff, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Florida on Nov. 30, and Umerov and Witkoff held another meeting a day later.
After their visit to Brussels, the two Ukrainian officials will begin preparations for talks with Trump's envoys, Zelensky said, without providing additional details.
NATO foreign ministers — with the notable exception of Rubio — are meeting in Brussels on Dec. 3 for a session that will also include a Ukraine-NATO Council meeting.
The series of high-level talks takes place amid Kyiv's push to negotiate more favorable conditions for the Trump administration's 28-point peace plan, which, in its original form, imposed harsh terms on Kyiv, including a cap on its military, a ban on joining NATO, and territorial concessions.
Axios journalist Barak Ravid reported on Dec. 2 that after their Moscow trip, Kushner and Witkoff were expected to meet Zelensky in an unspecified European country. Ukraine's president traveled to France and Ireland earlier in the week.
After the talks Moscow concluded, Ushakov claimed that the two U.S. envoys "promised they wouldn't go to Kyiv, but they promised they'd return home" to Washington.
The White House has not responded to the Kyiv Independent's request for comment.
"As always, Ukraine will work constructively in pursuit of a real peace," Zelensky said on X. "I expect a new report following the results of today's meetings in Europe."
