Ukraine’s top negotiator is scheduled to meet with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Florida on Thursday, two days after the U.S.’s high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, according to a senior U.S. administration official.
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is also expected to be at the meeting with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, the official said.
Before the meeting in Florida, Putin reiterated Russia’s demand that Ukrainian troops withdraw from territories they control in the east of the country and allow their annexation by Moscow, a proposal kyiv has repeatedly rejected.
“It all comes down to this: either we liberate these territories by force, or the Ukrainian troops will leave these territories and stop fighting there,” Putin told the Times of India ahead of his planned two-day visit to the country.
“No, they prefer to fight,” Putin said of the Ukrainian armed forces. “Well, now they’ve backed themselves into a corner.”
Putin again asserted the legitimacy of Russian control of eastern Ukraine citing the results of referendums organized by Russia in the occupied regions.
Ukraine, the United States and 142 other nations rejected those referendums as illegitimate in a 2022 United Nations resolution. Only Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria voted against the measure.
In this collective photo distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, US special envoy Steve Witkoff is seen accompanied by the Kremlin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev before a meeting with the president of Russia at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 2, 2025.
Kristina Kormilitsyna/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Wednesday that preparations were underway for new talks with US officials, but did not reveal when the talks were expected.
“We are preparing meetings in the United States. After the American team returns from Moscow and after relevant consultations in Washington, Rustem Umerov, Andrii Hnatov and the rest of the negotiating team will continue talks with President Trump’s envoys,” Zelensky said on social media.
Few details were released about what had been discussed during the five-hour meeting between Witfkoff, Kushner and Putin, but post-talk comments from Washington and Moscow were mostly positive. Both sides acknowledged that more work would need to be done to make the deal acceptable to both kyiv and Moscow.
Rescuers work at the site of apartment buildings hit by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Slaviansk, Ukraine, December 3, 2025.
Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had found some terms “unacceptable” but added that others were fine with Moscow. And Trump described it as a “reasonably good meeting.”
Trump said Witkoff and Kushner conveyed their “impression” that Putin “would like the war to end.”
Both Russia and Ukraine continued their long-range strike campaigns overnight Thursday.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 138 drones and two missiles into the country overnight, of which 114 were shot down or suppressed. Two missiles and 24 drones hit 14 locations, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down at least 76 Ukrainian drones overnight, one of which was destroyed over the Moscow region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, December 2, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik via Reuters
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie, Joe Simontti and Patrick Revelels responded to this report.
