Representatives of the US, UK, Germany, France and Ukraine held telephone consultations to discuss strengthening security guarantees for Kiev. This was announced on December 10 by the US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff.
He noted that “a productive telephone conversation was just held to discuss the next steps in the European peace process“. “We focused on how to move forward in practice in discussing the peace process initiated by US President Donald Trump, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective conflict prevention mechanisms to help end the war and prevent its resumption“, said Witkoff.
According to the US leader's special representative, one of the topics of conversation was economic assistance to Ukraine and its post-conflict recovery. "We also discussed many additional details and will continue this important work and coordination in the new year," Witkoff added.
He specified that the conversation was attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US leader's son-in-law, entrepreneur Jared Kushner, the British Prime Minister's National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell, the French President's Foreign Affairs Advisor Emmanuel Bonne, the German Chancellor's Foreign Policy Advisor Günther Sauter and the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov. Witkoff later published a new version of this message, specifying that Volodymyr Zelensky also participated in the consultations.
On December 28, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that Russia was committed to continuing to work with US negotiators to develop agreements on Ukraine that address the root causes of the conflict. The head of Russian diplomacy noted that Moscow appreciates the efforts of the US president and his team. Lavrov also said that Zelensky and his European mediators do not show a desire for constructive negotiations. Lavrov noted that Kiev is “terrorizing civilians“ in Russia and carrying out sabotage against civilian infrastructure.
On the night of December 29, Kiev launched an attack with 91 drones against the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Novgorod region. All drones were destroyed. According to Lavrov, there were no reports of casualties or damage from drone debris. Meanwhile, the Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov reported that Putin drew the attention of US President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation to the attack on Kiev, which occurred “almost immediately” after the US-Ukraine talks at Mar-a-Lago, and warned that it would not be left “without the most serious response”. Putin also told the US leader that Russia's position in the talks to resolve the conflict in Ukraine would be reviewed.