Trump Admin Proposes US–Ukraine–Russia Peace Talks, Zelenskyy Says

The United States has proposed a format for peace talks that would bring Ukrainian and Russian representatives back to the same table, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Speaking to reporters on Dec. 20 in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said the proposed trilateral meeting would take place at the level of Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov and his U.S. and Russian counterparts.

“As for Umerov, he called me and said that the US is now proposing a trilateral meeting of [national security advisers] between the US, Ukraine, and Russia,” Zelenskyy said, according to government news agency Ukrinform.

He did not provide more details about the proposal and expressed skepticism that such a meeting could add anything new.

“We had meetings in Turkey in this format, although there was a result—and that was exchanges,” Zelenskyy said, referring to three rounds of talks held in Istanbul between May and July, mediated by the United States and Turkey.

Those talks led to major prisoner exchanges, the return of fallen soldiers’ remains, and draft memorandums outlining each side’s positions on what kind of a deal could end the war, nearing its fourth year.

“I believe that this is not much of what we wanted, but it is very important. And I am very glad that we had such exchanges, that our soldiers and civilians returned home,” Zelenskyy said.

He also said he would support the U.S. proposal if a national security adviser-level meeting led to further exchanges or paved the way for trilateral leadership-level talks, according to Ukrinform.

Over the past year, Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that he is willing to meet directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but those calls have been ignored. The lead negotiators during the Istanbul talks were Umerov and Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky.

Umerov held talks with U.S. negotiators in Florida on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19. Kirill Dmitriev, a special envoy of Putin, arrived in Miami on Dec. 20 and met with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser.

Dmitriev told reporters upon leaving the talks that they had been “proceeding constructively” and would continue on Dec. 21.

On Dec. 19, both sides announced another exchange of fallen soldiers’ remains under agreements reached in Istanbul.

Medinsky said on Telegram that Russia had transferred the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv, while Ukraine returned the remains of 26 Russian servicemen.

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War separately confirmed that it had received the bodies of 1,003 Ukrainian servicemen. It thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its assistance but did not specify the number returned to Russia.

Reuters contributed to this report.