Senior US and Ukrainian officials have wrapped up talks in Florida, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the session "very productive" but stressing that more work is needed to develop a plan to end Russia's war against Ukraine.
"We had another very productive session, building on (the talks in) Geneva and the events of this week, but there is more work to do," Rubio told reporters after the meeting today, without going into details.
"There are many unresolved issues and, of course, there is another side here that has to be part of the equation," he added, referring to Russia.
"And that will continue later this week, when (White House special envoy Steve) Vitkoff travels to Moscow... We are also, to varying degrees, in contact with the Russian side, and we have a pretty good understanding of their positions," Rubio said.
Rustem Umerov, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council and head of the delegation from Kiev, described the negotiations as "significant and successful," but he did not go into details either.
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"We have completed a difficult but productive round of negotiations in Florida. We have tangible progress towards establishing a just peace," he wrote on Telegram.
He added that the meeting was "significant and successful."
"There is still much work ahead of us — we continue consultations and coordination of further steps for peace for Ukraine," he wrote.
AFP quoted an unnamed source close to the Ukrainian team, who said the talks "weren't easy" and that "the search for formulations and solutions continues."
Negotiating teams met in Hallandale, Florida, north of Miami, amid accelerated efforts to hammer out terms of a plan that would be acceptable to both Kiev and Moscow.
This week, Witkoff is scheduled to travel to Moscow for meetings with senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin. It will be his sixth meeting with Putin since January.
Early on November 30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media that "the American side is demonstrating a constructive approach and that in the coming days it is possible to work out steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end."
Later, Zelensky said he had spoken with the leaders of the European Commission and NATO to help "harmonize positions" during peace talks.
"I spoke with (NATO chief) Mark Rutte, and we will continue the conversation in the coming days," Zelensky said.
After talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Ukrainian president added: "We maintain full coordination with the European Commission and I am grateful for their support."
Kiev and its European allies are working hard on an alternative proposal after Trump administration officials released a 28-point plan, which largely incorporated Moscow's tough demands that have been present since the start of its invasion in February 2022.
For some Ukrainians, the plan represented capitulation after nearly four years of war in which more than a million people were killed or wounded on both sides.
French authorities announced that President Emmanuel Macron will host Zelensky in Paris on December 1 to discuss "conditions for a just and lasting peace."
Macron is one of the strongest allies of official Kiev.
The initial 28-point US proposal, released last week, worried Ukrainian officials — and reportedly angered Zelensky — who then held their own talks with Rubio and other US officials in Geneva.
Those talks resulted in a 19-point plan, which leaves several major questions open, including the fate of part of Donbas, the fate of Ukraine's NATO aspirations, and a potential limit on the size of Ukraine's armed forces.
Chief of Staff resigns
The diplomatic activity comes after a dramatic week that culminated in the resignation of Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's highly influential chief of staff. Yermak resigned on November 28, hours after anti-corruption investigators raided his office.
The raids stem from a growing scandal involving bribes over funds to defend Ukraine's vulnerable energy infrastructure. Two ministers have already been fired.
Yermak has not been directly charged with any wrongdoing and said that during the raids, investigators were given "full access" to his apartment and that he was providing "full cooperation."
Zelensky himself is not directly involved, although the scandal has turned into the worst political crisis of his more than six-year term.
Continuation of Russian drone attacks
A Russian drone struck an apartment building in the city of Vyshgorod in the Kiev region on Saturday night, killing at least one person and wounding more than a dozen others. Regional governor Mykola Kalashnikov said rescuers were evacuating residents of the skyscraper and searching for survivors.
A day earlier, Russia bombed Kiev and other parts of the country, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power across the country as temperatures began to drop. The attacks killed at least three people and wounded dozens more.
While struggling on the battlefield to contain a larger and better-equipped Russian army, Ukraine is increasingly attacking targets inside Russia, targeting oil and energy facilities.
The Ukrainian military said it had struck the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region early on November 29, as well as a military aviation facility in the Rostov region.
Ukraine's main intelligence agency has released a video purportedly showing naval drones targeting two "shadow fleet" tankers in the Black Sea. Russia has been using a global fleet of ships with murky registration and ownership records to export oil, evading Western sanctions.
Separately, Moldova said on November 29 that Russian drones had entered its airspace before flying into neighboring Ukrainian territory. It was the third such incident in nine days.
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