Hafsa Khaliland
Laura Gozzi
US special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet the head of Ukraine’s national security council, Rustem Umerov, for talks in Miami on Thursday, the White House has confirmed.
Witkoff spent almost five hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday in negotiations which the Kremlin said produced “no compromise” on ending the war in Ukraine.
US President Trump said the talks – attended by his son-in-law Jared Kushner – were “reasonably good”, but it was too soon to say what would happen because “it does take two to tango.”
Putin said reaching a consensus would not be an “easy task”, reportedly highlighting Moscow’s repeated demand that Ukrainian troops withdraw from the Donbas region.
The territory – which is occupied by Russian forces – would be conquered by the force of arms, or they would have to leave, he was quoted saying in Russian state media.
“It all comes down to this. Either we liberate these territories by force of arms or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories and stop fighting there.”
When asked by a reporter if Witkoff and Kushner believed Putin wanted an end to the war, Trump said Putin “would like to end the war. That was their impression.”
But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybhia accused Putin of “wasting the world’s time”, while Ukraine’s ambassador to the US said they do not “need to wait for promises from Russia”.
There was “not too much progress” at this stage of the talks, ambassador Olga Stefanishyna said, but that they were ongoing.
“It is clear on both sides – in Ukraine and the United States – that Ukraine is committed to the result. Ukraine has invested a lot in the commitment to have a just and lasting peace in our country,” she explained.
Earlier on Wednesday, Zelensky had said a meeting between US and Ukrainian negotiators would take place “in the coming days”.
“Right now, the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war,” he said in a statement on X – but negotiations must be “backed by pressure on Russia”, he added.
The US-Russia talks at the Kremlin followed days of US meetings with Ukrainian and European leaders, after concerns had been expressed that the draft of a peace deal was too slanted towards Russia’s demands.
“Some of the US proposals look more or less acceptable, though they need to be discussed further”, Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said, while adding that others had been openly criticised by Russia’s leader.
Although Ushakov did not elaborate further, at least two major points of contention remain between Moscow and Kyiv – the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron – who is visiting Beijing – has urged China’s president Xi Jinping to play a part in securing a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Kyiv and its European partners believe that, even in the event of a peace deal, the most effective way to deter Russia from attacking again in the future would be to grant Ukraine membership of Nato.
Russia is vehemently opposed to such a proposal, and Trump too has repeatedly signalled he has no intention of letting Kyiv into the alliance.
The prospect of Ukraine joining Nato was a “key question” that was tackled in Moscow, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Ushakov, a senior foreign policy adviser to Putin, implied that the Russian negotiating position had been strengthened thanks to recent successes on the battlefield.
Russian soldiers had “helped make the assessments of our foreign partners regarding the paths to a peace settlement more appropriate,” he said.
Ahead of the US visit to the Kremlin, Putin was filmed in army fatigues at a Russian command post, being briefed by commanders claiming the conquest of the key strategic city of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, as well as other nearby settlements.
Fighting in Pokrovsk is continuing and Russian forces do not control the whole city, but Russian officials clearly believe their message of military gains has been heard by the US.
Russian forces have made some incremental advances in the east and appear to have stepped up their campaign in recent weeks. They seized about 701 sq km (270 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory in November, according to AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and they now control 19.3% of Ukrainian territory.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said Putin was ready to keep meeting with the Americans “as many times as needed”.
But as Russian-American relations appear to grow more cordial, the gulf between Moscow and Europe widens.
Putin has accused Europe of sabotaging Russia’s relations with the US, of putting forward demands Moscow could not accept and of blocking the peace process.
Shortly before meeting Witkoff and Kushner, Putin told a forum in Moscow that while he did not want conflict with Europe, he was “ready for war”.
UK government officials rejected Putin’s message as “yet more Kremlin claptrap from a president who isn’t serious about peace”.
Nato foreign ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday and Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that it was positive that peace talks were taking place but Ukraine had to be put in “the strongest position to keep the fight going”.
EU member states have reached a deal with members of the European Parliament to make Europe fully independent of Russian gas before the end of 2027.
The European Commission is also proposing to raise €90bn for Ukraine to fund its military and basic services while Russia’s war continues, which would cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs for the next two years.
The plan would either require Belgium to agree to a “reparations loan” using frozen Russian assets held in a financial institution in Brussels, or the money would be funded by international borrowing.
Belgium has resisted the plan to use frozen assets held on its territory, over concerns about legal repercussions from Moscow. The European Central Bank (ECB) has also opposed the idea, saying it would not act as a backstop for a reparations loan.
The proposed loan is smaller than the planned €140bn loan initially planned.
Additional reporting by Amy Walker
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