Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Washington has proposed direct talks involving US, Russian, and Ukrainian negotiators, a move that could mark a new phase in negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy was speaking at a news conference in Kyiv on December 20, as the Kremlin’s senior negotiator, Kirill Dmitriev, arrived in Florida for fresh meetings with his US counterparts.
Up until now, US officials have largely met with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts separately, rather than having all three sides in the room at once.
Three rounds of direct talks in Turkey, in May, June, and July resulted in agreements on prisoner exchanges but no substantive progress towards a resolution to the conflict.
“The United States told us they will have a separate meeting with Russia’s representatives. They have proposed a Ukraine - United States - Russia format, and since there are also representatives from Europe, possibly Europe as well,” Zelenskyy said.
"If now there can be a meeting that would unblock an exchange, or if the result of a trilateral meeting of advisers could be an agreement on a leaders’ meeting -- I cannot be against it. We will support the US proposal," he added.
There was no immediate confirmation from the United States, Russia, or European countries about a change in negotiating format.
Zelenskyy’s comments follow another week of intense diplomatic and military activity as Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches the end of its fourth year.
US envoys held talks with European and Ukrainian officials, a European Union summit approved a $106 billion loan to Kyiv, and Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an uncompromising 4 ½-hour news conference at which he repeated previously stated demands along with debatable claims of battlefield advances.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated on December 19 that he may join the talks in Florida, adding that Washington would force neither side into a deal.
“We can’t force Ukraine to make a deal. We can’t force Russia to make a deal. They have to want to make a deal,” he said.
Details of the plans being hammered out remain sketchy, but the broad outlines envisage Ukraine making territorial concessions in return for security guarantees.
Dmitriev, who as head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund has been under US sanctions since February 2022, claimed that “warmongers” were seeking to undermine Washington’s peace efforts.
His words followed a Russian missile attack on Odesa and its suburbs the previous evening that killed seven people and injured 25.
Ukrainian emergency services shared photos of a bus that they said was “the epicenter of the strike.”
Russian forces have been attacking the Odesa region almost daily since the beginning of December. Tens of thousands of people have been left without electricity amid cold winter weather. Water supplies have also been affected.
Russia has denied targeting civilians since launching its full-scale assault in February 2022 but has repeatedly struck non-military infrastructure including schools, hospitals, power facilities, and residential buildings.
Putin again indicated on December 19 that Russia would achieve its aims militarily if Ukraine did not agree to its demands. Zelenskyy has underlined security guarantees as the main sticking point in peace talks.
"What will the United States of America do if Russia comes again with aggression? What will these security guarantees do? How will they work?" he asked on December 18.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has claimed two attacks that stretch the battlefield beyond its usual theaters.
On December 19, it claimed to have hit a Russian shadow fleet tanker off the coast of Libya, which would be the first such strike in the Mediterranean. On December 20, it claimed to have hit a Russian oil rig and naval vessel in the Caspian Sea – an area Ukraine has said that it has hit in the past.
“The drone's onboard camera recorded a successful hit in the area of the platform's gas turbine installation. Previously, SBU drones had already hit ice-resistant oil production platforms at the Filanovsky and Korchagin fields in the Caspian Sea, which led to the suspension of production processes,” a Ukrainian security source told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.
The December 19-20 strikes could not be independently confirmed. They follow two other recent strikes on shadow fleet tankers in the Black Sea.
“We're watching the birth of a new Tanker War. Like the 1980s Iran-Iraq conflict, merchant vessels are now economic weapons,” wrote maritime intelligence agency Windward in a social media post. “The message to Russia's 1,300 dark fleet vessels: There is no sanctuary.”
