Kremlin Envoy to Visit Florida to Discuss Russia-Ukraine Peace Again

JAKARTA - A Kremlin envoy will travel to Florida to discuss the US's proposed plan to end the war in Ukraine.

The information was conveyed by a US official on Thursday, as part of diplomacy as the Trump administration pushes for a potential deal.

Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia's sovereign wealth fund, is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on Saturday, December 20, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a preview of the meeting, which has not been publicly announced.

The official said Witkoff and Kushner would sit down with Dmitriev, after meeting with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week, where they discussed US security guarantees for Kyiv, territorial concessions, and other aspects of the American-drafted plan aimed at ending the war.

When asked about the meeting in Miami, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Moscow was preparing contacts with the US to find out the results of the meeting in Berlin, but he did not provide further details.

Trump launched an extensive diplomatic effort to end nearly four years of fighting after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022, but Washington's efforts have met with very different demands from Moscow and Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that Moscow would seek to expand its territory in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies rejected the Kremlin's demands in peace talks.

Putin wants all the territory in the four main regions seized by his forces, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory.

He also demanded that Ukraine withdraw from several areas in eastern Ukraine that have not been seized by Moscow's forces, which Ukraine has rejected.

The Kremlin has also insisted that Ukraine abandon its efforts to join NATO and warned that Moscow would not accept the deployment of troops from NATO member states and would consider them "legitimate targets."