KHARKIV and LONDON — President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is scheduled to travel to Moscow on Monday to present a peace-plan proposal to Russian President Vladimir Putin — a key test of the administration’s effort to end the war in Ukraine.
Witkoff’s trip follows his participation in talks in Florida with a senior Ukrainian delegation aimed at shaping a proposal both Kyiv and Moscow might accept. Expectations that Putin will sign on are low. He has made hardline comments, reiterating demands that Ukraine withdraw from territory he claims and calling negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “pointless,” signaling that Moscow’s battlefield gains may reduce its appetite for bargaining.
Zelenskyy is expected to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, where the U.S.-led negotiations are likely to be discussed. Ukrainian and European leaders appear to be coordinating their signals as the U.S. and Russian moves draw attention.
Zelenskyy said his envoys in Florida returned with the “main parameters” of the talks and “some preliminary results,” but he is awaiting an in-person briefing. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who took part in the Florida meetings, called the next steps “delicate,” noting the process is complex with “a lot of moving parts.” He said Russia will have to be part of the equation when Witkoff visits Moscow and that U.S. officials have been in varying degrees of contact with the Russian side, with a “pretty good understanding of their views.”
U.S. and Ukrainian officials described the roughly two-hour session at Shell Bay Golf Course in Hallandale Beach as productive, but released no details of any agreements and offered no sign of a breakthrough on the core issues needed to end the war.
The discussions in Florida addressed a revised 19-point plan produced after talks in Geneva a week earlier; that version reworked an earlier 28-point proposal that Kyiv and European allies had criticized as favoring Russia. Officials did not say whether the Florida meeting further revised the plan.
A source familiar with the talks said topics included security guarantees for Ukraine, the fate of billions in Russian assets frozen by Western countries, and the possibility of elections in Ukraine — with the frozen assets issue described as “key” for Russia. On the central sticking point — any ceding of unoccupied territory in the Donbas — there was no sign of movement: Russia remained unwilling to discuss a ceasefire, and Ukraine would not agree to surrender territory.
Rubio described the session as “very productive and useful” and said participants share a vision that the effort is about both ending the war and securing Ukraine’s future. Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s lead negotiator, said the Florida meeting built on the “success” of Geneva and suggested there would be “later stages” to the talks.