Senior Ukrainian and US negotiators have jointly called on Russia to show a “serious commitment to long-term peace” after talks in Moscow earlier this week failed to produce a breakthrough.US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, have held two days of what a statement described as “constructive discussions” in Florida.The prospect of ending the war depended on Russia’s readiness to take “steps towards de-escalation and cessation of killing”, the statement said.Overnight, Russia launched 653 drones and 51 missiles against Ukraine, most of which were downed, authorities said. One strike hit a railway hub at the town of Fastiv outside Kyiv, damaging a depot and rolling stock.Ukraine’s energy ministry said Russian attacks had hit energy facilities in eight regions, causing blackouts. Moscow has intensified attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector and infrastructure in recent weeks. “Russia continues to disregard any peace efforts and instead strikes critical civilian infrastructure,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.”This shows that no decisions to strengthen Ukraine and raise pressure on Russia can be delayed. And especially not under the pretext of peace process,” he added.At the Florida talks, Witkoff and Umerov “agreed on the framework of security arrangements” that could such an agreement and “discussed necessary deterrence capabilities to sustain a lasting peace”, their statement said without giving further details.The negotiations, which are also attended by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, will continue for a third day on Saturday. The Florida talks saw Ukraine’s team briefed on the meeting between Trump’s most senior overseas envoy and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.Witkoff spent almost five hours with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, after which the Kremlin said “no compromise” had been reached on the draft US peace plan. The Kremlin said Putin was ready to continue meeting …
