Ukrainian officials have discussed what they are willing to concede to end Russia's invasion after hours-long negotiations with top US diplomats who will soon deliver the demands to Moscow.
The revelations come as Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday, following negotiations with the Ukrainians in South Florida over the weekend. Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, is flying to Moscow with Witkoff on Monday, an official told the Wall Street Journal.
Witkoff and Kushner have been central to the US's renewed negotiation efforts.
Alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the duo met with top Ukrainian officials over the weekend in Hallandale Beach, Florida.
The meeting, held near Witkoff, Kushner and Trump's residences - Rubio is also from the area - lasted about four hours and covered an array of details on how the Ukrainians want to wind down the nearly four-year war.
The two sides have worked to revise a U.S.-authored plan developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow that was criticized as being too favorable for Russia.
During the latest round of talks, the officials discussed potential land swap deals between Russia and Ukraine, a senior US official told the WSJ. They also discussed another crucial sticking point: Ukrainian elections.
The US official disclosed that both sides discussed a timeline for when to hold elections next in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has been in office since 2019, and his term officially ended in 2024, but Ukrainian law disallows elections during wartime.
Still much is to be determined, including the scope of any land swaps, whether the new borders would be recognized internationally, and specific security guarantees for Ukraine.
Following the discussions on Sunday, Trump said there is a 'good chance' a deal could be struck and the war could soon come to a close.
However, Trump has signaled for months that a deal is imminent, even after his August meeting with Putin in Alaska, though actual progress has been slow and contentious.
The Kushner-Witkoff duo dealt directly with Putin's negotiator Kirill Dmitriev in Florida last month, where they developed the initial version of the 28-point plan.
Though the plan caught some flak, it was later adjusted in Geneva between top US and Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky's top negotiator Andriy Yermak, the president's now-ex chief of staff.
Yermak resigned after anti-corruption investigators raided his home and offices in connection with the ongoing probe last week. The scandal has cast a shadow over the current regime's position in the negotiations.
Zelensky has signaled a willingness to go along with US-led negotiations with Russia as some chaos has gripped his administration.
Putin has ostensibly acted the same, showing an openness to the wind-down of the conflict that has claimed the lives of an estimated 300,000 soldiers. Still, Russia and Ukraine have been relentlessly exchanging blows.
'When Ukrainian troops leave the territories they hold, then the fighting will stop,' Putin said recently. 'If they don't, then we'll achieve that through military means.'
A Russian missile strike around midday on Monday killed four people and wounded 40 others, 11 in critical condition, in the eastern city of Dnipro, according to the head of regional administration Vladyslav Haivanenko.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday condemned Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure over the weekend, including an attack on an oil terminal owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, CPC, and another that targeted two tankers in Turkish waters.
