US and Russian officials are due to meet for another round of talks on ending the war in Ukraine, in Miami on Saturday.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russia's head of its sovereign wealth fund is set to meet with US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity as the meeting has not yet been officially announced.
The meeting will follow Friday's talks in Berlin where Witkoff and Kushner met with EU and Ukrainian officials, to discuss US security guarantees for Kyiv, territorial concessions and other aspects of the American-proposed plan.
Meanwhile also on Friday, Ukraine's top negotiator Rustem Umerov said that a Ukrainian party had met with American and European partners in the US, and that they agreed to keep on working together "in the near future".
When questioned about the Miami meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Moscow was preparing for talks with the US to be briefed on the outcome of the discussions in Berlin, though he declined to provide specifics.
Although Trump has deployed a big diplomatic push to end the war, he has been met with conflicting demands from Moscow and Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently signaled he is standing firm on his demands over Ukraine, even as Moscow’s troops make only small gains on the battlefield despite heavy losses.
On Friday, Putin said he was confident Russia could achieve its goals by force if Kyiv refuses to accept Moscow’s terms in peace talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a nearly four-and-a-half-hour news conference that if the West treats Russia with respect, there will be no more wars after Ukraine, while dismissing recent claims such as those made by NATO chief Mark Rutte that Europe should prepare for war with Russia as “nonsense”.
When asked by the press if Moscow is planning a new “special military operation”, Putin’s words for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he replied: “There won't be any operations if you treat us with respect, if you respect our interests just as we've always tried to respect yours.”
Putin also applauded Trump’s peace efforts and reaffirmed that Moscow was ready for a peaceful settlement that would address the “root causes” of the conflict, a nod to the Kremlin’s tough conditions for any deal. He said he had agreed to make “certain compromises” and “uneasy decisions” at the Alaska summit with Trump in August but did not elaborate.