U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators plan to sit down in Miami on Friday, October 9, for what both sides describe as a fresh attempt to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The White House confirmed that President Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, would meet Ukrainian representatives to discuss a new joint proposal covering all aspects of the conflict, RFE/RL reports. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the talks should run two days and that he expects his team back in Kyiv by Monday morning, according to Interfax-Ukraine. “We also anticipate that a European team will join our negotiating group and the American negotiating group,” Zelenskyy said, in Interfax-Ukraine’s translation.
Kyiv sends a heavyweight team. Zelenskyy named presidential chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, Rustem Umerov, Servant of the People faction leader David Arakhamia, and Serhiy Kyslytsya, Interfax-Ukraine reports. Outlets describe two of those officials differently: RFE/RL calls Umerov head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service and Kyslytsya first deputy head of the presidential office, while Kyiv Post calls Umerov secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and Kyslytsya first deputy foreign minister. Kyiv Post, citing Axios, says military intelligence chief Oleh Ivashchenko will attend too. This desk could not settle the title gap and shows both versions.
Europe gets a seat at a second table. National-security advisers from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, along with representatives of NATO, the European Union, and U.S. European Command, have a broader meeting scheduled for 11:30 a.m. local time, with talks set to resume at 1:45 p.m., RFE/RL reports. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would separately raise money and air defense with the Europeans, including faster ways to receive funds, according to Interfax-Ukraine and RFE/RL.
The agenda seems broad but thin on public detail. U.S. and Ukrainian officials told Axios that the talks would explore ways to break the diplomatic deadlock, including a possible partial ceasefire covering attacks on energy infrastructure and grain shipments, Kyiv Post reports. Zelenskyy said Thursday that Kyiv had discussed such a ceasefire with Washington; Axios reported that Ukraine signaled readiness while Russia showed little interest, according to Kyiv Post. A U.S. source told Axios the agenda includes security guarantees for Ukraine and a postwar economic recovery plan, and RFE/RL, citing sources familiar with the plans, says the meeting will focus on proposals U.S. negotiators began developing with Russian and Ukrainian interlocutors during recent visits to the region. One of those U.S. sources told AFP the sides would discuss “new ideas and proposals,” DW reports.
The diplomacy unfolds under fire. More than 70 people died in Russian strikes on Ukraine over the past two days, Zelenskyy said, as DW reports, a figure that seems to include this week’s glide-bomb attack on buses in Kramatorsk that this desk covered on October 8. RFE/RL describes relentless Russian strikes on power and other infrastructure in Kyiv and other cities ahead of winter, and says its investigative unit Schemes obtained a Russian-language document, from sources in Ukraine’s defense forces, outlining a possible campaign to cut civilian power, heat, and water. This desk has not seen that document.
Washington and Moscow sound gloomy. Rubio called the war a stalemate, DW and Kyiv Post report, though the two outlets date the remarks differently: DW places them on Wednesday, while Kyiv Post says he spoke Thursday in Lisbon and wanted to prevent further escalation in the coming month. Rubio called the conflict “a very dangerous war” and warned that escalation could include Russian sabotage in neighboring NATO countries, RFE/RL reports. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that he agreed with Rubio’s assessment and saw no immediate prospect for a three-way summit of Putin, Zelenskyy, and Trump, according to DW.
Zelenskyy pushed back. “One cannot, on the one hand, negotiate with the Russians about future economic projects, whilst on the other hand say that we find ourselves in some sort of ... diplomatic stalemate,” he said, DW reports, and he called again for tougher sanctions on Russia’s economy. A Ukrainian official told Axios that the U.S. midterm elections and Russia’s interest in sanctions relief could give Putin reasons to accept some form of ceasefire, Kyiv Post reports.
Moscow may come next. Witkoff and Kushner met Trump on Thursday to present the latest U.S. proposal before Miami, a U.S. official told Axios, and the pair could travel to Moscow later in October for more talks with Putin, a source familiar with the matter told Axios, according to Kyiv Post. RFE/RL notes the envoys visited Moscow and Kyiv in early September. As of this desk’s writing, before the sessions open, no outlet had reported any outcome from Miami.
