Witkoff, Kushner to meet with Kyiv officials – DW – 12/04/2025

Ukraine said some of the thousands of Ukrainian children abducted from Russia-occupied territory have been sent to North Korea for “re-education”.

Kyiv’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets did not say how many children Russia had taken to North Korea. Moscow has not commented publicly on this allegation.

Lubinets’ quoted testimony, reported by the Kyiv-based Regional Center for Human Rights, said there is a network of 165 “re-education camps” in occupied eastern Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and North Korea.

North Korea is a secretive, highly repressive regime that has deepened its ties with Russia since the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kiev says Russia has forcibly displaced about 20,000 children since the invasion in 2022.

Russia has acknowledged relocating some children since the invasion began, but says the move was to protect the children and reunite them with relatives. Ukraine rejects that claim.

Meanwhile, America’s First Lady Melania Trump has said that seven children who were separated from their families due to the war have been reunited with their relatives.

In October, Melania Trump announces that eight children have been returned to their familiesShe then said she had personally written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Leaders of Ukraine’s European allies held a conference call this week in which they reportedly warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the US could “betray” Kiev during talks with Russia to end the war.

german weekly mirror German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron told Zelensky they do not have confidence that the Trump administration has Ukraine’s best interests in mind, reports said Thursday.

according to mirrorIn a statement that said it had received a transcript of Monday’s conference call, Macron raised “the possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees.”

Russia is demanding that Ukraine give up Moscow-held territory in the country’s east.

Merz, for his part, warned Zelensky to “be extremely careful in the coming days” and said the US was “playing games, with you and us.”

In comments to AFP, the German chancellor declined to comment on media reports. “Also, in principle we cannot report confidential conversations.”

Similarly, Ukrainian presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told AFP that “We do not comment on provocations.”

The US Treasury Department has suspended some sanctions against Russian energy giant Lukoil, easing some of the West’s economic pressure on Russia over the war in Ukraine.

On Thursday, the Treasury said it was expanding authorization for Lukoil-branded fuel stations outside Russia.

The Treasury Department said it was taking the step to “minimize harm to consumers and suppliers wishing to engage in normal transactions” with service stations associated with Lukoil and its entities.

This measure means that Lukoil petrol stations can continue to operate in countries such as the United States without returning money to Russia.

The embargo preventing the money from reaching Russia is still in place.

Russia has been hit with sweeping Western sanctions over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Lukoil in October as part of his administration’s efforts to pressure Moscow to agree to a peace deal.

The Treasury measure was announced while Putin was on a visit to New Delhi, where he told India Today that if the US can buy Russian fuel, “why should India not get the same privilege.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in India on a state visit on Thursday, has said Moscow “cannot agree” to some peace plans proposed by the US.

Putin made the comments during an interview with broadcaster India Today after meeting US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

The latest version of the plan includes amendments following discussions with Ukraine and its European partners.

Key points blocking progress are considered to be the issue of territory in eastern Ukraine, most of which is occupied by Russia, as well as Ukraine’s long-term security guarantees.

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are scheduled to meet Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustam Umerov in Miami on Thursday.

Trump administration officials, speaking to AFP and AP news agencies on condition of anonymity, confirmed the meeting but did not provide any further details.

Although his envoys’ meeting with Russian President Putin in Moscow earlier this week yielded no results, Trump said Wednesday that talks in the Kremlin were “very good.”

He also said that Kushner and Witkoff left their meeting with the impression that Putin “would like to make a deal.”

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner are set to meet with senior Ukrainian negotiator Rustam Umerov in Florida on Thursday.

The meeting comes after Trump’s envoys met with Vladimir Putin this week after failing to make a breakthrough in talks to end the war in Ukraine.

Witkoff and Kushner had traveled to Moscow to present a revised version of Trump’s 28-point plan for peace in Ukraine, which Kiev and its European allies said was too favorable to Russia.

Kremlin rejected the amendmentsThe region in eastern Ukraine and long-term security guarantees for Kiev are the main sticking points.

Stay tuned as DW brings you the latest on the latest push for peace in Ukraine, nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.