A six-hour meeting in Florida sits behind Washington’s new push to end the Ukraine war

The diplomatic push to end the Ukraine war came during a six-hour meeting last Friday in Florida hosted by the US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, The Washington Post reported¹. The crisis that followed first erupted at Witkoff’s golf club outside Miami on Friday, according to an account of the same meeting³. The New York Times reported that President Trump faces a new crisis over Ukraine after the Russian diesel deal².

Two sources said Witkoff and Kushner discussed President Vladimir Putin’s position with Ukrainian representatives at the Miami meeting, in an account that also reported Washington is betting the diesel deal will bring Russia closer to peace talks⁴. Ukraine’s negotiating team has since briefed President Zelenskyy on the talks with the envoys⁶. Zelenskyy commented on the talks himself after that briefing⁶.

Why it matters to investors

The terms being discussed link energy flows to military support. The reporting ties the Russian diesel arrangement directly to the attempt to restart negotiations, which means the diplomatic track and the diesel market are now one story rather than two^2,4.

The pressure runs in the other direction too. The Trump administration has threatened to cut intelligence sharing and weapons sales to Ukraine, with one Ukrainian official quoted as saying the envoys issued warnings during the talks⁷. These are accounts from unnamed sources and from one side of the negotiation, and neither government has confirmed the terms in this coverage^4,7.

What to watch

The clearest signal of whether the push is advancing is travel. Witkoff and Kushner have postponed their planned trips to Moscow for talks, which removes the next scheduled step from the calendar⁵.

Watch also what Kyiv says publicly after the briefing, since Zelenskyy has been commenting directly on the talks while the envoys have gone quiet^1,6. For defence and energy exposure, the question is whether the threatened cuts to intelligence sharing and weapons sales are carried out or used only as leverage^2,7.

The Washington Post framed the approach as making both the problem and the solution bigger, which implies a package rather than a ceasefire line, and a package is harder to verify from outside¹.