Ukraine president discusses "bringing peace closer" with US negotiators

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he spoke with US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner for about an hour on how to end the war with Russia.

"It was a really good conversation: many details, good ideas, that we discussed. There are some new ideas on how to bring the real peace closer, and it concerns formats, meetings, and, certainly, the timeline," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app.

Trump has been pushing for a deal to end the almost four-year-long war, and in recent weeks peace efforts led by Witkoff and Kushner have been slowly inching forward.

Earlier this week, Zelenskyy presented a 20-point draft peace plan that he described as the main framework for ending the war.

The draft represented a slimmed-down version of an original 28-point plan the US previously discussed with the Russian side that was widely seen as mainly benefiting Moscow as it demanded Kyiv cede territory and put curbs on its army.

However, key territorial questions remain unresolved in the new 20-point draft, Zelenskyy said, adding that a meeting with Trump would be required to solve the most sensitive issues.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Moscow was analysing the documents on ending the war which were brought to Moscow by Russia's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev from the United States.

The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine's top negotiator Rustem Umerov planned to have one more conversation with the US negotiators later in the day.

"We are truly working 24/7 to bring closer the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective, and reliable," he said.