Key negotiators in the talks to end the war in Ukraine

U S President Donald Trump s push for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine is intensifying Administrators from the U S Ukraine and Russia have crisscrossed the globe in latest 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 procedures 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 -year-old is a longtime friend and golf partner of Trump He has visited Moscow multiple times in new months Marco Rubio Rubio the U S secretary of state has been leading talks with the Ukrainian side and not long ago 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 in recent days emerged as an unlikely interlocutor in the push to end the war in Ukraine Driscoll presented Trump s plan to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and later sat down with Russian functionaries 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 authorities in Florida following last week s resignation of Zelenskyy s chief of staff Andrii Yermak He served as defense minister from October until July when he was appointed to lead Ukraine s National Precaution and Defense Council after a regime 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 In - 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 review last month that Witkoff coached Ushakov on how Putin should pitch the peace plan to Trump Kirill Dmitriev Dmitriev a former financing 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 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 He is known for firmly defending Russian agenda 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 Source