US hopes diesel deal can ‘soften’ Moscow on peace talks, sources say

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve ‌Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner told the Ukrainians in a meeting in Miami that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not prepared to negotiate an end to his 4 1/2-year-old war in Ukraine and that the deal announced last week could help restart trilateral talks, said two of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Donald Trump's envoys told Ukrainian officials on Friday that a deal to allow Russian diesel exports is part of a bid to draw Russia back to negotiations after previous efforts to launch sustained talks to end the war failed, three people familiar with the meeting told Reuters.

One of the people familiar with the meeting said the diesel agreement is just one part of a larger conversation about how to bring Ukraine and Russia back to the negotiating table and end the war.