MOSCOW, Dec 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on 
Saturday he was heading to Miami, where another round of talks to settle the 
Ukraine war was set to take place.

Ukrainian and European teams were also in the sunny American city for the 
negotiations mediated by Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and the US 
president's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

"On the way to Miami," Dmitriev wrote in an X post, adding a pigeon emoji and 
attaching a short video of a morning sun shining through the clouds on a 
beach with palms.

"As warmongers keep working overtime to undermine the US peace plan for 
Ukraine, I remembered this video from my previous visit -- light breaking 
through the storm clouds," he added.

Russian and European involvement in the talks marks a step forward from an 
earlier stage, when the Americans held separate negotiations with each side 
in different locations.

However, it is unlikely Dmitriev would hold direct talks with Ukrainian and 
European negotiators as relations between the two sides remain extremely 
strained.

Moscow, which sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, argues that Europe's 
involvement in the talks would only hinder the process and tends to paint the 
continent's leaders as pro-war.

The weekend talks come after President Vladimir Putin vowed to press ahead 
with his military offensive in Ukraine, hailing Moscow's battlefield gains 
nearly four years into his war in an annual news conference on Friday.

Trump's envoys have pressed a plan in which the United States would offer 
security guarantees to Ukraine, but Kyiv will likely be expected to surrender 
some territory, a prospect resented by many Ukrainians.