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Talks between Russia and the US on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were constructive, but much work remains, Yuri Ushakov, a 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 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.
The latest comes after Putin met with US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin in talks that began late Tuesday as part of a renewed push by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal. Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.
“Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed. Some of the wording that was proposed to us doesn’t suit us. So, the work will continue,” Ushakov said.
There were other points of disagreement, although Ushakov did not provide further details. “We could agree on some things, and the president confirmed this to his interlocutors. Other things provoked criticism, and the president also didn’t hide our critical and even negative attitude toward a number of proposals,” he said.
Putin accuses EU of sabotaging US-led talks
The meeting came days after US officials held talks with a Ukrainian team in Florida, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described in cautiously optimistic terms, following Trump’s 28-point peace plan that became public last month and raised concerns about being tilted heavily toward Moscow.
The proposal granted some of the Kremlin’s core demands that Kyiv has rejected as nonstarters, such as Ukraine ceding the entire eastern region of the Donbas to Russia and renouncing its bid to join NATO.
The plan was whittled down to 20 items in Sunday’s talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida.
On Tuesday, Putin accused Kyiv’s European allies of sabotaging the US-led efforts to end the war. “They don’t have a peace agenda; they’re on the side of the war,” Putin said of the Europeans.
The Russian leader accused Europe of amending peace proposals with “demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia,” thus “blocking the entire peace process” and blaming Moscow for it.
Reiterating his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe—a concern regularly voiced by some European countries, Putin vowed Moscow was ready for the fight if they brought one now.
“But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that,” Putin said.
For Ukraine’s part, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday he was expecting swift reports from the US envoys in Moscow on whether talks could move forward.
