No Ukraine Breakthrough as Putin Holds Five-Hour Talks With Trump Envoys
Russia and the United States failed to reach a compromise on a possible peace plan for Ukraine after a five-hour, late-night meeting in the Kremlin between President Vladimir Putin and two U.S. President Donald Trump’s top envoys.
The Gaze reports this, referring to Reuters.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov described the talks with special envoy Steve Witkoff and senior adviser Jared Kushner as “useful” and “constructive,” but said they produced no progress on key issues, especially the territorial dispute. The sides, he noted, remained “neither further nor closer” to a settlement.
Ushakov said Putin reacted negatively to several U.S. proposals, though some elements of Washington’s drafts appeared “more or less acceptable.”
The talks included discussion of what Moscow calls the “territorial problem” – Russia’s claim to the entire Donbas region, despite thousands of square kilometres remaining under Ukrainian control and recognized internationally as Ukrainian territory.
The meeting, which stretched past midnight, included Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev and was held via interpreters. Witkoff later visited the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to brief the White House. Washington has not yet released an official readout.
Speaking in Dublin, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that any peace effort must be fully transparent and involve Ukraine as an equal party. “There will be no easy solutions,” Zelenskyy said, adding that it was essential to avoid “any games behind Ukraine’s back.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Putin’s latest threats – including remarks about cutting off Ukraine’s access to the sea in retaliation for strikes on Russia’s “shadow fleet” – showed Moscow was “not ready to end the war.”
In addition, a scheduled meeting between Zelenskyy, Witkoff and Kushner in Brussels, expected to take place today, was cancelled at the last minute.
The Kremlin has claimed the U.S. envoys promised to return directly to Washington after their meeting with Putin, though American officials have not confirmed this.
Ushakov said there were also currently no plans for a meeting between Trump and Putin, while suggesting “significant opportunities” exist for future U.S.–Russia economic cooperation if political conditions improve.
As The Gaze reported earlier, negotiations between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Florida centered largely on where a potential demarcation line could run.
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