Rubio Calls U.S.-Ukraine Talks Productive as Witkoff Heads to Moscow

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida on Sunday were productive but that “there’s more work to be done,” as U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff prepared to travel to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Fortune’s account of an Associated Press report and NPR.

The roughly four-hour session took place at the Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, a golf and racket club developed by Witkoff, Fortune reported. Rubio, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, met a Ukrainian delegation that included Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s security council. Rubio said the goal goes beyond ending the fighting to “securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity,” according to Fortune. Umerov thanked the Americans and said the “U.S. is hearing us,” without saying what progress had been made.

The talks center on revisions to a U.S.-authored plan. Fortune reported that the original 28-point version would have limited the size of Ukraine’s military, barred it from NATO, required elections within 100 days and had Ukraine initially cede the Donbas region. President Donald Trump has since called the draft a concept to be “fine-tuned,” and the current version, per Fortune, includes a Ukraine Development Fund for technology, data centers and artificial intelligence.

NPR’s Charles Maynes reported that Witkoff was due in Moscow on Monday and expected to see Putin that night or the next day. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would receive Witkoff before Thursday, when the Russian leader departs for India, Fortune reported. NPR noted that Bloomberg News had published a leaked audio transcript that appeared to show Witkoff coaching the Kremlin on how to approach Trump. Trump called it “deal-making 101,” and, according to NPR’s rush transcript, Putin described Witkoff as a polite and intelligent person who tried to work with Russia.

Ukraine’s delegation was reshaped by a domestic scandal. Fortune reported that Andrii Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff and lead negotiator, resigned on Friday after anti-corruption investigators searched his home, amid an investigation into about $100 million allegedly embezzled from the energy sector. Trump told reporters the scandal created “some difficult little problems” but said there is “a good chance we can make a deal.” Zelensky said Saturday that the U.S. side was “demonstrating a constructive approach.”

Territory is a central dispute. NPR reported that Putin offered on Friday to halt hostilities immediately if Ukraine withdrew from territory Moscow claims after more than three years of fighting. Kyiv has long sought Western security guarantees, which Moscow has rejected, NPR said.

The war continued as diplomats talked. Fortune reported that Russian strikes on Kyiv on Saturday killed at least three people and that a drone hit an apartment block in Vyshhorod on Sunday, killing one and wounding 19, including four children.