Russian envoy to join Ukraine talks in Miami

MOSCOW: Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Saturday he was heading to Miami, where another round of talks to settle the Ukraine war was set to take place.

Ukrainian and European teams were also in the sunny American city for the negotiations mediated by Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“On the way to Miami,” Dmitriev wrote in an X post, adding a pigeon emoji and attaching a short video of a morning sun shining through the clouds on a beach with palms.

“As warmongers keep working overtime to undermine the US peace plan for Ukraine, I remembered this video from my previous visit — light breaking through the storm clouds,” he added.

Russian and European involvement in the talks marks a step forward from an earlier stage, when the Americans held separate negotiations with each side in different locations.

However, it is unlikely Dmitriev would hold direct talks with Ukrainian and European negotiators as relations between the two sides remain extremely strained.

Moscow, which sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, argues that Europe’s involvement in the talks would only hinder the process and tends to paint the continent’s leaders as pro-war.

The weekend talks come after President Vladimir Putin vowed to press ahead with his military offensive in Ukraine, hailing Moscow’s battlefield gains nearly four years into his war in an annual news conference on Friday.

Trump’s envoys have pressed a plan in which the United States would offer security guarantees to Ukraine, but Kyiv will likely be expected to surrender some territory, a prospect resented by many Ukrainians.