Charles Maines

You know, so on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who, of course, the son-in-law of the president, hosted a Ukrainian delegation for talks in Florida, which has emerged as kind of a nexus for Ukraine-related diplomacy in recent weeks.

Discussions were focused on this new U.S.

peace plan, initially criticized as heavily tilted in Russia's favor, but since amended with input from Ukraine and Europe recently.

Now, Rubio called the meeting productive, even as he made clear there was plenty more work to do.

He also had this to say.

Now, this meeting was also notable because of a shift in the makeup of the Ukrainian delegation.

That's after a corruption scandal led to the resignation of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's chief of staff, who had been the lead negotiator with the U.S.

How much that influenced the talks is tough to say.

Trump, in brief comments to Journalist Sunday, referred to the corruption scandal as a little problem.

Rubio didn't mention it at all.

Yeah, you know, he arrives later today and he'll meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin either tonight or tomorrow.

But Witkoff has his own baggage.

You know, a recently leaked transcript of an audio recording reported by Bloomberg News certainly appeared to show Witkoff actively coaching the Kremlin on how to engage with Trump and working with them to incorporate key Russian talking points into the original draft of the peace plan.

You know, that said, Trump has dismissed this as basically deal-making 101.

And Putin also defended Witkoff, saying, yeah, he's a polite and intelligent guy who tried to work with us.

And wouldn't it be strange if he'd come here and just insulted us and expected to get anything done?

It's a good question, you know, because Putin, it seems, is trying to tempt the U.S.

into upping the pressure on Ukraine to accept a deal.

On Friday, he offered an immediate end to hostilities if Ukraine withdraws from territory Moscow claims, which may sound appealing if you ignore that it's Ukrainian land that Russia hasn't been able to seize in more than three years of fighting, although Putin argues it's just a matter of time.

Meanwhile, Russia has been tempting the U.S.