President Donald Trump’s envoys to meet with Ukrainian negotiators for the third time in two weeks to press his plan to end the war as his administration eased economic pressure on Russia.
Two days after the envoys met Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. Treasury Department partially suspended measures that Mr. Trump had announced in October when he finally vowed to get tough on Moscow.
The Treasury Department suspended until at least April 29 economic sanctions against Lukoil-branded gas stations outside of Russia.
A ban remains in place to prevent the money from flowing back to Russia, which has been under sweeping U.S. and EU sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Mr. Trump’s sanctions had been one of the most concrete means to pressure Russia, which European diplomats accuse of trying to avoid pressure by pursuing negotiations.
Ukraine seeks ‘complete information’
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s business partner-turned-roving global ambassador, and Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, will meet in the Miami area for dinner late on Thursday with the top Ukrainian negotiator, Rustem Umerov, a U.S. official said.
The gathering, which will be closed to the press, came two days after the Trump duo met with Mr. Putin for five hours, stretching into the early morning, in Moscow.
“Our task now is to obtain complete information about what has been said in Russia and what other reasons Putin has found to prolong the war and to pressure Ukraine, to pressure us, our independence,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an evening address from Kyiv.
“Ukraine is prepared for any possible developments. Of course, we will work as constructively as possible with all our partners to ensure peace is achieved, and that it is a dignified peace.”
Mr. Trump said on Wednesday (December 3, 2025) that the envoys had a “reasonably good meeting” with Putin.
Pressed on whether Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner got any sense that Mr. Putin genuinely wanted to halt the invasion, Mr. Trump replied: “He would like to end the war. That was their impression.”
But Mr. Putin showed no public signs of budging, as Russia makes slow but steady progress seizing land in eastern Ukraine.
“This is a complex task and a challenging mission that President Trump took upon himself,” Mr. Putin said of the diplomacy in an interview published on Thursday (December 4, 2025) as he visited India.
“Achieving consensus among competing parties is no easy task, but President Trump, truly, I believe — he sincerely tries to do this,” he said, according to magazine India Today.
“I think we should engage with this effort rather than obstruct it.”
Mr Putin’s visit to India, a historic partner of Russia, comes as international isolation of him gradually eases.
Mr. Trump in August welcomed Mr. Putin to Alaska where they made no clear progress on ending the Ukraine conflict.
Also on the diplomatic front, Turkiye, a key broker, summoned envoys from both Ukraine and Russia after Kyiv claimed drone attacks on Russia-linked tankers in the Black Sea.
Critical time for Ukraine
Mr. Trump has previously mused that Russia will inevitably win more land and that Ukraine would be better off settling.
A first draft of the U.S. plan would see Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not been able to win on the battleground in return for security promises that fall short of Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO.
Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner have been working on modifications since meeting with the Ukrainians on November 23 in Geneva. The two sides met again the following week in Miami alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The talks come at a delicate time for Zelensky, who was hailed as a hero in the West at the start of the war but has had a tumultuous relationship with Trump.
Mr. Zelenskyy last week removed his top aide and negotiator Andriy Yermak, who days earlier had negotiated with Witkoff, as he came under investigation in a corruption scandal.
Published – December 05, 2025 08:46 am IST
