U.S. President Donald Trump's push for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine is intensifying.
Officials from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia have crisscrossed the globe in recent weeks in a flurry of meetings aimed at negotiating a deal. Here's a look at the key negotiators in those talks.
Steve Witkoff
Witkoff is a real estate magnate turned White House foreign policy fixer for the Trump administration. He has been at the forefront of complex negotiations to end the world’s two biggest wars in Gaza and Ukraine from a perch that did not require Senate confirmation. The 68-year-old is a longtime friend and golf partner of Trump. He has visited Moscow multiple times in recent months.
Marco Rubio
Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, has been leading talks with the Ukrainian side and recently headed the U.S. delegation in Geneva, where amendments were introduced to the U.S.-Russia brokered peace plan that heavily favored Russia.
Jared Kushner
Kushner is Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser during the president’s first term. He is a businessman and investor who worked on a wide range of policies in the Trump administration, including brokering a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas earlier this year. He has also been involved in the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, meeting in Florida with the Ukrainian side over the weekend and in Moscow with the Russians.
Dan Driscoll
Driscoll, the U.S. army secretary, is an Iraq War veteran and friend of U.S. Vice President JD Vance. He recently emerged as an unlikely interlocutor in the push to end the war in Ukraine. Driscoll, 38, presented Trump’s plan to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and later sat down with Russian officials in the United Arab Emirates to discuss the proposals.
Rustem Umerov
Umerov was appointed to lead Ukraine’s delegation in peace talks with U.S. officials in Florida following last week's resignation of Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andrii Yermak. He served as defense minister from October 2023 until July 2025, when he was appointed to lead Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council after a government shake-up. Since the full-scale war broke out, Umerov has been heavily involved in all key rounds of negotiations.
Yuri Ushakov
Ushakov, a longtime Russian diplomat, has served as a presidential aide since 2012. In 1998-2008, he served as Russia’s ambassador to the United States. He speaks English and Danish, according to the Kremlin. Ushakov has been prominently involved in Russia’s talks with the U.S. this year on ending the war in Ukraine, a role highlighted by a report last month that Witkoff coached Ushakov on how Putin should pitch the peace plan to Trump.
Kirill Dmitriev
Dmitriev, a former investment banker who is now head of Russia’s sovereign wealth, has emerged as a key player in the U.S.-led effort to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Dmitriev, 50, lacks diplomatic credentials but has increasingly served as a back-channel communicator between the Kremlin and Trump allies, despite being on the U.S. sanctions list.
Sergey Lavrov
Lavrov has served as Russia’s foreign minister since 2004. He is known for firmly defending Russian policy in appearances worldwide and regarded as a formidable interlocutor, fluent in English, well-briefed on all affairs and unwaveringly determined to press Russian demands. Lavrov has been involved in Russia’s talks with the U.S. this year on ending the war in Ukraine. He attended the first meeting with a U.S. delegation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in February and has held phone conversations with Rubio.
