US offers new talks format including Russia and Ukraine, Zelenskiy says

KYIV, Dec 20 (Reuters) - ⁠The United ⁠States ‍has offered a potential new format for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia ‍with American and possibly European envoys participating, Ukrainian ​President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.

Kyiv will decide on ​the format once it is clear whether bilateral discussions with U.S. negotiators that resumed on Friday are positive, Zelenskiy said, ​adding he planned to take up the matter with Ukraine's delegation chief Rustem Umerov.

Speaking to ​reporters in Kyiv, he did not go into specifics as to ‌what kind of format President Donald Trump's administration had proposed.

"The U.S. said they would ​have a separate meeting with ⁠representatives of Russia. And they proposed the following format, as far as ‌I understand: Ukraine, America, Russia, and, since there are representatives of Europe there, probably Europe as well," Zelenskiy ‌said.

U.S. negotiators were set to meet Russian officials in Florida ‌on Saturday.

Ukraine and Russia have not negotiated face to face since July, but U.S.-backed shuttle diplomacy to end the ‍almost four-year-old war in Ukraine has intensified in recent weeks.

Ukrainian and European ⁠representatives held a round of discussions with American counterparts in the United States on Friday and agreed to resume contacts soon, Umerov said.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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