Talks in Miami between US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and a Ukrainian delegation ended on 9 October after one of two planned days1. The delegation included Rustem Umerov, the former national security council secretary who has run Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service since August. It also included Kyrylo Budanov, the former military intelligence chief who has headed the Office of the President of Ukraine since January, with Davyd Arakhamiia and Sergiy Kyslytsya.
Axios reported that the envoys warned Washington could restrict Kyiv's access to US intelligence, a threat tied to Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries2. Witkoff's own statement spoke of "constructive discussions on potential avenues to de-escalate and conclude the war with Russia ahead of winter"3. The reported warning came on the same day Washington licensed Russian diesel, so pressure on Kyiv and relief for Moscow's fuel trade arrived together.
The same pair had left Moscow and Kyiv in September with nothing announced. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 4 October that the US had proposed technical-level trilateral talks with Russia by the end of October, possibly in the United Arab Emirates. "We're open to the UAE or any other country proposed by the U.S. side," he said4.
