Ukraine's top negotiator Rustem Umerov will on Thursday meet US counterparts in Florida in a bid to revive talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, Kiev has said, as negotiations remained largely frozen over the war in the Middle East.
US-mediated talks on ending Europe's worst conflict since World War II have shown little progress since February, when Washington shifted focus to its war with Iran.
"The Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine will hold a series of meetings today with envoys of the President of the United States," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, referring to Umerov.
"First, the humanitarian track. We hope it will be possible to carry out a new stage of the release of prisoners. Second, the reinvigoration of the diplomatic process," Zelenskyy added.
Failed talks
Umerov last met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Florida between March 21-22.
Since returning to the office, Trump has pushed Moscow and Kiev to negotiate. But months of talks have failed to bring the warring parties closer to an agreement to stop the fighting, which started four years ago.
The already stalled talks were put on the back burner from late February, when the US-Israeli war against Iran began.
Even before the Iran war, Russia and Ukraine remained at odds over the key issue of territory.
Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines.
But Russia has rejected this, saying it wants the whole of the Donetsk region despite it being partly controlled by Ukraine - a demand Kiev says is unacceptable.
