(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a “difficult” conversation with US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on the issue of territory during a two-hour call on a potential Ukraine peace deal, Axios reported on Saturday.
The call came at the end of three days of talks that Witkoff and Kushner held with Ukrainian officials in Miami following their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. While Kushner doesn’t hold an official position in the Trump administration, he has been serving as an advisor to Witkoff and has been deeply involved in talks on the future of the Gaza Strip and, more recently, Ukraine.
The Axios report said that Russia is still demanding Ukraine cede what territory it still controls in the Donbas, something Ukrainian officials refuse to do. A source told the media outlet that the US is trying to develop new ideas to bridge the issue, but it’s unlikely that Moscow will drop the condition, as Russia has momentum on the battlefield and continues to make gains in the Donbas.
The other main sticking point in the negotiations is the potential US security guarantee for Ukraine. The Axios report said that the US and Ukraine have made progress and neared an agreement on the issue, but it’s unclear what sort of arrangement the US is willing to commit to, and any deal that involves NATO-style security guarantees would likely be a non-starter for Moscow.
I’ve just had a long and substantive phone call with @SteveWitkoff and @jaredkushner, alongside Andrii Hnatov and @rustem_umerov. I am grateful for a very focused, constructive discussion.
We covered many aspects and went through key points that could ensure an end to the… pic.twitter.com/ZOVhJZJRbW
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 6, 2025
Zelensky, who has been under fire over his government’s widespread corruption, said in a statement on his call with Witkoff and Kushner that he is willing to continue “working in good faith” with the US to achieve a peace deal. “We agreed on the next steps and formats for talks with the United States,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.
Zelensky is set to meet with his two advisors who participated in talks with Witkoff and Kushner in Miami: Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s Security Council, and Andrii Hnatov, the chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. “Not everything can be discussed over the phone, so we need to work closely with our teams on ideas and proposals,” Zelensky said.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
