HALLANDALE BEACH, Florida – The US administration cast Sunday’s five-hour Florida session with top Ukrainian officials as another step toward what President Donald Trump says is a real possibility: “There’s a good chance we can make a deal.”
But beyond the upbeat talk of “progress” and “prosperity,” one of America’s most experienced diplomats is issuing a pointed warning – the US will get nowhere unless it begins pressuring Moscow instead of haggling with itself.
Ambassador Daniel Fried, the former assistant secretary of state and longtime Russia expert whose career spanned seven administrations, told Kyiv Post following Sunday talks that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s messaging in Miami was right – but the follow-through had been lacking.
Rubio “outlined the overall principles right,” Fried said, welcoming the emphasis on “an independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.”
But, he added pointedly, “now we need to mean it.”
What “meaning it” requires
Pressed on what Washington must do, Fried said the US needs to demonstrate actual security assurances and the kind of sustained security backup that prevents Russia from attacking Ukraine again.
He added the US must also stop what he called “negotiations with ourselves,” since Ukrainians, Europeans, and Americans have spent the past two weeks debating among themselves while Russia has “sat back with their arms folded,” offering nothing and maintaining maximalist demands.
And he argued that Washington must undo the early structural advantage Russia gained when US-Russian back-channels helped shape the original “28-point plan,” giving the Kremlin far too much influence over the starting framework.
New US tone – and old US problem
Sunday’s talks featured Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and presidential adviser Jared Kushner opposite a heavyweight Ukrainian delegation, including Defense Council chief Rustem Umerov and Ukraine’s top military commander Andriy Hnatov.
Rubio emphasized that the goal is not only to end the war but to “help Ukraine be safe forever so never again will they face another invasion,” and to launch an “age of true prosperity” supported by US-Ukraine commercial ties, development funds, and energy cooperation.
But Fried warned that translating Rubio’s ideas into policy is far from guaranteed – and that until recently, the US negotiating track had been drifting.
He pointed directly to Witkoff’s performance: “Witkoff does not seem to have a grasp of the details, and he’s often operated sort of on the fly,” Fried said – a dangerous approach in talks of this magnitude.
Rubio’s takeover of the Miami session, he argued, may finally give the American team “a reasonable negotiating mandate – instead of simply taking and repackaging the Russian ideas.”
Meanwhile, Trump injects his own message
Trump, speaking aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, said Ukraine “has got some difficult problems,” citing the corruption scandal that has shaken President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government.
“We have a corruption situation going on which is not helpful,” he said, adding, “I said it was going on for three years… I was way ahead of schedule.”
The US president insisted that despite the turmoil, “there’s a good chance we can make a deal,” and said he has “no deadline.”
The corruption crisis – a $100 million embezzlement scheme from Ukraine’s energy sector – has forced Zelensky to reshuffle his negotiating team, including the resignation of Andriy Yermak.
Yet Umerov, now playing a central role, emphasized gratitude toward the US and the “productive and successful” nature of the Miami session.
Is the next step Moscow’s or Washington’s?
With Witkoff and Kushner heading to Moscow on Monday for a Tuesday meeting with Vladimir Putin, some in Washington believe the ball lies in Russia’s court. Fried agrees only partially.
“The Russians have sat back, and they have not negotiated seriously,” he said. “The task now is for the US and Europe – but the US, Trump especially – to put enough pressure on the Russians so that they start negotiating in a serious way.”
Washington must stop switching its pressure targets from day to day – one moment Ukrainians, the next moment Russians – and instead hold a steady course, Fried said. “We need to steady ourselves and push at the Russians, who are the obstacles to peace.”
Fried argues that Washington can alter Moscow’s calculus by enforcing oil sanctions with Europe, guaranteeing Ukraine a steady stream of weapons, and demonstrating convincingly that Russia’s assumption of an American withdrawal from Europe and Ukraine is simply wrong.
The stakes in Moscow – and back in Washington
Rubio struck an optimistic chord, saying progress is being made and that the US and Ukraine share a vision of a secure, prosperous future.
Umerov echoed that tone, thanking the American team for what he called “tremendous work.”
But Fried, the veteran diplomat who has watched Russia test, stall, and shape negotiations for decades, says optimism requires strategy – and Moscow will only budge when real costs, not just talking points, confront the Kremlin.
Rubio may have steadied the American position in Miami. But Moscow, as Fried warns, won’t negotiate seriously until Washington decides it’s done negotiating with itself.