US officials held talks today with Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov and the national security advisers of the UK, France and Germany to discuss next steps to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said.
“We focused on how to move the talks forward in a practical way on behalf of the US president’s peace process, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective conflict prevention mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not start again,” Witkoff said in a social media post.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also participated in those talks.
Kiev is asking for decisions
Top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday that Kiev had coordinated its positions with the United States and its European allies in telephone talks with security advisers.
Umerov, writing on Telegram, said he had “informed” President Volodymyr Zelensky about the phone conversations. According to US envoy Steve Witkoff, Zelensky participated in the discussions.
“We coordinated our positions and planned further meetings with our European and American partners in January,” Umerov wrote. Work will continue in the new year with the aim of achieving “tangible” results in the effort to resolve the war between Ukraine and Russia.
The Russian video about the attack on Putin’s house
The Russian Defense Ministry released video today of what it described as a downed drone, in an update aimed at showing that Ukraine tried this week to attack a presidential residence and challenging Kiev’s denial that such an attack had taken place.
Video released by the Russian Defense Ministry shows a senior officer, Major General Alexander Romanenko, detailing how Moscow believes Ukraine attacked one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences in the Novgorod region.
Romanenko said 91 drones were launched from Ukraine’s Shumi and Chernihiv regions in a “carefully planned” attack that he said was thwarted by Russian air defenses, caused no damage and did not injure anyone.
The video released by the ministry included footage of a Russian serviceman standing next to fragments of a device it said was a downed Ukrainian Chaklun-V drone carrying a 6kg explosive device, which had not been detonated.
Kiev’s reaction
The video presented by Russia as evidence of an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s residence earlier this week is “ridiculous”, a spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said today.
“This is ridiculous … both the fact that it took them two days to produce it and the fact that the things they are trying to present as evidence basically show that they are not even serious about constructing the narrative,” Heorhii Tihii told Reuters.
“We are absolutely certain that there was no such attack.”
