No progress in Florida on Russia's demand to surrender Ukrainian Donbas – ABC News

During the talks in Florida on November 30, there was no progress on the demand of the aggressor country, Russia, to surrender the unoccupied part of Ukrainian Donbas, declares ABC News, citing a source with knowledge of the meeting.

According to him, Russia is still not ready to discuss any form of ceasefire, and Ukraine is unwilling to give up its territory.

In addition, the source said that during the talks in Florida, Ukraine and the United States discussed security guarantees for Kyiv, as well as the fate of billions of dollars of frozen assets in Russia and possible elections in Ukraine.

The issue of these assets was "key" for the Russians, the media source said.

On the day of the meeting, the interviewee of Axios media claimed that in Florida, the United States wanted to eliminate disagreements over territory and security guarantees. An interlocutor of The Wall Street Journal noted that the talks were supposed to discuss the schedule of elections in Ukraine, the possibility of a "territory swap" between Russia and Ukraine, and other issues that have not yet been resolved between Washington and Kyiv.

The day after the meeting, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the territorial issue is the most difficult one in terms of peace, adding that it is the only one that is discussed in Florida talked for six and a half hours.

• Following the talks in Florida, secretary Rubio said that there is still "a lot of work to be done" on the peace plan, but positively assessed the meeting. The head of Ukrainian delegation Umerov noted that Washington shares Kyiv's key goals.
• On the afternoon of December 1, Zelenskyy and his European partners spoke with the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Umerov, and Trump's special envoy, Witkoff, who is to go to Russian dictator Putin the next day.