Kremlin denies three-way US-Ukraine-Russia talks in preparation

MIAMI: The Kremlin on Sunday denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States were on the cards, as diplomats gathered in Miami for talks on ending the conflict.

A day earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said that Washington had mooted the trilateral format, which would mark Moscow and Kyiv's first face-to-face negotiations in half a year, but expressed scepticism that they would lead to progress.

"At present, no one has seriously discussed this initiative, and to my knowledge, it is not in preparation," Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters, according to Russian news agencies.

After revealing the US three-way proposal, Zelensky told journalists on Saturday that he was "not sure that anything new could come of it", and urged the United States to step up pressure on Russia to end the war.

But the Ukrainian leader struck a more upbeat note on Sunday, adding that "constructive" talks between US, European and Ukrainian negotiators were "moving at a fairly rapid pace", while cautioning that "much depends on whether Russia feels the need to end the war for real".

"Unfortunately, the real signals coming from Russia remain only negative: assaults along the frontline, Russian war crimes in border areas, and continued strikes against our infrastructure," Zelensky posted on X.

Russian envoy in town

Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev arrived on Saturday in Miami, where Ukrainian and European teams have also been gathering since Friday for the negotiations, mediated by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Dmitriev "will return to Moscow, make his report, and we will discuss what to do next", Uskakov said.

The top Kremlin aide also told Russian journalists Sunday that he had "not seen" the revised US proposal to end the conflict.

Washington last month stunned Ukraine and its European allies by presenting a 28-point plan to end the war widely seen as caving in to the Kremlin's key demands, which has since been redrafted following Kyiv and Europe's involvement.

While little is known of the latest version, Kyiv is likely to be expected to surrender some territory -- a prospect resented by many Ukrainians -- in exchange for US security guarantees.

Moscow's troops have been steadily advancing at the eastern front in recent months, with Putin on Friday hailing the Russian army's territorial gains -- and threatening more in the coming weeks.

Putin-Macron call?

The last time Ukrainian and Russian envoys held official direct talks was in July in Istanbul, which led to prisoner swaps but little else in the way of concrete progress to stop the fighting.

Russian and European involvement in Miami marks a step forward from before, when the Americans held separate negotiations with each side in different locations.

But the extremely strained relations between the two sides after nearly four years of Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II have cast doubt over the prospect of direct Ukraine-Russia talks.

Moscow, which sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, also argues that European involvement in the talks only hinders the process.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview published Sunday, Putin however expressed his willingness to talk with France's Emmanuel Macron on the conflict.

Macron held several calls with Putin in the run-up to and during the early months of the conflict, in an attempt to press the veteran Kremlin leader on the war.

Putin has "expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron", Peskov told state news agency RIA Novosti.

"Therefore, if there is mutual political will, then this can only be assessed positively."

In response, Macron's office said Putin's stated willingness to talk was "welcome", but stressed that any discussion with Moscow would be conducted "in full transparency" with Zelensky and European allies.

Meanwhile, Zelensky said on X that "over the past week, Russia has launched approximately 1,300 attack drones, nearly 1,200 guided aerial bombs, and 9 missiles of various types against Ukraine" with the Odesa region and the south of the country "hit particularly hard".

Moscow on Saturday claimed the capture of two villages in the northern Sumy and eastern Donetsk regions, while Ukraine said it had destroyed two Russian fighter jets in the occupied Crimean peninsula.