U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff met this weekend in West Palm Beach, Florida with senior figures from Ukraine’s government to advance a renewed peace proposal aimed at ending the war with Russia.

The talks come as the administration of Donald J. Trump intensifies efforts to broker a deal acceptable to all parties.

The Ukrainian delegation was led by Rustem Umerov, Secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, joined by Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Armed Forces head Andrii Hnatov.

Their arrival followed the abrupt resignation of former lead negotiator Andrii Yermak amid an anti-corruption investigation — a development that triggered concern in Kyiv but did not derail the scheduled talks.

At the core of discussions was a reworked version of the 28-point framework initially proposed by Washington, which U.S. officials now describe as a flexible “map” rather than a binding treaty.

The revised agenda is understood to include security guarantees, ceasefire mechanisms and conditions for Ukraine’s future neutrality — though precise terms remain under negotiation.

The objective is to reconcile Ukrainian and Russian demands under a roadmap that could avert further bloodshed, while preserving some form of Kyiv’s sovereignty and self-defence capacity.

U.S. participation on the American side was not limited to diplomatic officials.

In addition to Rubio and Witkoff, the meeting included Jared Kushner, a close adviser to the president.

The administration has signalled readiness to send Witkoff — and possibly Kushner — to Moscow for direct negotiations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, contingent on substantive agreement from Kyiv.

The Florida discussions reflect high-stakes diplomacy under the Trump administration, which frames the effort as a pragmatic attempt to end a conflict that has scarred Europe for years.

Supporters view the streamlined U.S. role as a demonstration of leadership capable of bridging old divides through bold negotiation.

Critics, however, caution the plan may demand difficult compromises from Ukraine at a time its military remains under severe pressure from escalating Russian attacks.

Some U.S. lawmakers have also raised concern that the proposed settlement echoes Russian-favoured terms.

In testimony to their peers, a bipartisan group of senators claimed Rubio privately described the original plan as “a wish list of the Russians,” although the State Department formally denied that account.

For Kyiv, the path forward remains fraught.

The new delegation faces the dual challenge of negotiating under intense battlefield pressure while responding to domestic uproar over the political scandal that brought down Yermak.

Even as talks proceed, fighting continues: recent Russian drone and missile strikes have killed civilians and shattered critical infrastructure.

As diplomats reconvene, global attention turns to whether these Florida meetings mark the first step toward an eventual ceasefire — or the prelude to a complicated, high-risk negotiation that could redraw the terms of European security for years to come.