Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to discuss a possible way to end the deadliest European conflict since World War II.
Shortly before the meeting, Putin warned Europe that it would face swift defeat if it went to war with Russia, and dismissed European counterproposals on Ukraine as absolutely unacceptable to Russia.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war, but his efforts, including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August and meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, have not resulted in peace.
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The leaked draft of a set of 28 US peace proposals emerged last week, alarming Ukrainian and European officials, who said it gave in to Moscow’s main demands regarding NATO, Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on the Ukrainian military.
European powers then presented a counterproposal and, in talks in Geneva, the United States and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
“What a mess”
A smiling Putin told Witkoff he was happy to see him and asked about his and Kushner’s walk through Moscow, which included a stroll through Red Square, past the mausoleum of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin to the Kremlin towers.
“It’s a magnificent city,” Witkoff told Putin, in the presence of foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Both sides had interpreters.
The Kremlin talks continued after midnight in Moscow, lasting more than four hours.
“Our people are in Russia right now to try to resolve the problem. It’s not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting in Washington, adding that the war has caused between 25,000 and 30,000 casualties a month.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is leading efforts to revamp the original peace plan to address Ukrainian and European concerns, said Witkoff is trying to end the war.
“They are on the side of the war”
Shortly before the Kremlin meeting, Putin accused Europe of trying to undermine Trump’s peace efforts by putting forward proposals that he knew were unacceptable to Russia.
“They are on the side of war,” Putin said of European powers. “We can clearly see that all these changes have a single objective: to completely block the entire peace process by making absolutely unacceptable demands on Russia.”
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Putin said that Russia does not want war with Europe, but that if Europe starts it, it will end so quickly that there will be no one left with whom Russia can negotiate.
Putin has threatened to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea in response to drone attacks on Russian “shadow fleet” tankers in the Black Sea. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Putin’s comments demonstrated he was unwilling to end the war.
Russian forces control more than 19% of Ukraine, or 115,600 km², an increase of just 1 percentage point from two years ago, although they will advance in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.
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But after nearly four years of war, Russia has failed to conquer Ukraine, a much smaller country that has received support from European powers and the United States.
Zelensky, speaking in Dublin, said everything would depend on talks in Moscow, but he feared the United States could lose interest in the peace process.
“There will be no easy solutions… It is important that everything is fair and transparent, so that there are no games behind Ukraine’s back,” he declared.
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Basis for future agreements
Putin said discussions so far are not about a draft agreement, but about a set of proposals that last week he said “could be the basis for future agreements.”
Putin declared his readiness to negotiate peace, but warned that if Ukraine refuses a deal, Russian forces will advance further and seize more Ukrainian territory.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the start of the Cold War.
The conflict began in eastern Ukraine in 2014, following the overthrow of a pro-Russian president in the Maidan Revolution. Russia annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists fought Kiev’s armed forces in the east of the country.
In a video released on the eve of Witkoff’s visit, Putin hailed what his commanders called Russia’s capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk as an important victory after a protracted campaign.
The Ukrainian military told Reuters it still controls the northern part of the city and attacked Russian forces in southern Pokrovsk.
North American authorities estimate that the number of victims of the war exceeds 1.2 million dead and injured. Neither Ukraine nor Russia disclose their official losses. The conflict has also caused widespread destruction in Ukrainian towns and cities, forcing many people to flee their homes.
Since preliminary U.S. proposals were released last month, European powers have tried to support Ukraine against what they see as a punitive peace deal that could open Russia up to U.S. investment in oil, gas and rare earths, as well as reintegrate Moscow into the G8.
Key Russian demands include a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO, limits on the Ukrainian Army, Russian control of the entire Donbas region, recognition of Russian dominance over the Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine.
Ukraine says this would amount to capitulation and leave it vulnerable to eventual Russian takeover, although Washington has also proposed a 10-year security guarantee for Kiev.
Ukraine and European powers see the war as an imperialist territorial grab by Moscow and warn that if Russia wins, it could attack NATO members in the future. Zelensky says Russia should not be rewarded for a war it started.
