KIEV, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian and U.S. delegations discussed "key issues" and next steps on settling the Ukraine crisis in fresh negotiations held in the U.S. state of Florida on Saturday, Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, has said.
"We continued to discuss key issues and next steps within the negotiation track. Special attention was paid to coordinating approaches for further progress toward practical results," he was cited as saying in a report by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Umerov met with the U.S. side together with David Arakhamia, head of the parliamentary faction of Servant of the People; Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office; and Sergiy Kyslytsya, first deputy head of the presidential office.
According to Umerov, the U.S. delegation was represented by presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, White House Senior Advisor Josh Gruenbaum and State Department Senior Policy Advisor Chris Curran.
Umerov said a report on the results of the first day of the Ukraine-U.S. meeting was presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky said in a video address on Saturday that the Ukrainian and U.S. teams will continue their talks on Sunday, noting that a key issue discussed was to understand how ready Russia is to move toward a real end to the crisis, according to the Ukrainian president's official website.
Witkoff on Saturday said in a post on social media platform X that U.S. and Ukrainian delegations held "constructive meetings" in Florida, with "discussions focused on narrowing and resolving remaining items to move closer to a comprehensive peace agreement."
"We welcome the continued engagement toward resolving the outstanding issues, recognizing its importance to broader global stability," he wrote.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Friday that Russia would not participate in Saturday's talks.
Delegations from Ukraine, the United States and Russia previously held two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 23-24 and Feb. 4-5, followed by another round in Geneva on Feb. 17-18. ■
