U.S. presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner tried to convince the Ukrainian delegation at a meeting in Miami that a diesel deal with Russia could help bring the Kremlin back to the negotiating table, three sources told Reuters.
At the meeting, Kushner also relayed Donald Trump’s demand that Kyiv stop striking Russian oil refineries. “The idea was that the US could go back to Russia and say ‘See, the Ukrainians stopped striking and we gave you this deal. Now it’s your turn to do something,” one of the sources said.
Witkoff and Kushner told Ukrainian representatives at the meeting that Vladimir Putin is not willing to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, two sources told Reuters.
A source close to the Kremlin said Putin will return to the negotiating table only once he “gets the remaining 11% of Donbas, which he can present domestically as victory.”
Part of the meeting between Witkoff, Kushner, and the Ukrainian delegation focused on Ukraine’s reconstruction funds and the need for Kyiv to formally draft plans for attracting investment in the country.
Ukrainian representatives “were skeptical” of the U.S. approach, the sources said. The Ukrainian side left the meeting without formally agreeing to anything but signaled it was prepared to accept an energy truce if Russia observed it as well.
On October 9, Trump spoke by phone with Putin and afterward announced a “diesel deal” under which Russia would supply diesel fuel to American and global markets. Ukrainian representatives met with Witkoff and Kushner in Miami that same day. The talks had been scheduled to run October 9 and 10 but ended after just one day.
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