No breakthrough on Ukraine after Witkoff-Putin talks in Moscow

Talks between Russia’s president and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were “constructive”, but there has been no breakthrough, Yuri Ushakov, senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Wednesday.

Ushakov called the five-hour conversation “rather useful, constructive, rather substantive,” but added that the framework of the US peace proposal was discussed rather than “specific wording.”

Asked whether peace was closer or further away after these talks, Ushakov only said, “Not further, that’s for sure.”

“So far, a compromise hasn’t been found” on the subject of territory, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees “no resolution to the crisis.”

“But there’s still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow. That’s what’s been agreed upon. And contacts will continue,” he added.

Moscow has not scaled down its maximalist demands to Ukraine to cede its territories to Russia. The Kremlin wants Kyiv to withdraw its forces not only from the territories where the fierce fighting continues and from the areas temporarily occupied by Russia, but also from the territories Russia never controlled.

The Kremlin also demands that the US administration recognise these Ukrainian territories as Russian. Putin has been signalling he is not willing to accept any concessions from Moscow’s side.

Reaction in Moscow

Russian officials were expecting the Tuesday talks to help them seal a deal for a one-on-one Trump-Putin meeting.

The US president cancelled the summit in Budapest in October due to what he called a lack of progress and willingness from the Kremlin to work on a possible deal to put an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin-affiliated media outlets released a video of Witkoff and Kushner walking through Moscow's city centre with Russian officials as they waited for the meeting with Putin.

Originally scheduled for 5 pm local time, the meeting began nearly three hours late, as Putin attended an investment forum where he threatened Europe, saying Moscow is “ready now” if “Europe wants to start a war".

While noting that this was Witkoff’s sixth visit to Moscow since January, Russian news outlets also stated that Putin would only accept the original 28-point plan.

Moscow officials continue to refer to it as the “US plan” despite Bloomberg's release of leaked phone call recordings said to be proof that the deal was drafted by Russian officials, specifically Kirill Dimitriev and Ushakov. Both of them were present at the Tuesday meeting in Moscow.

After the talks concluded, Ushakov claimed that the two US envoys "promised they wouldn't go to Kyiv, but they promised they'd return home" to Washington.

According to the media reports, Witkoff and Kushner were considering meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an unspecified European country on their way back from Moscow.