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Talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow about how to end the war in Ukraine were “very useful” but much work remains to be done, a senior aide to the Russian president has said.
Yuri Ushakov said the two sides focused on the “substance” of proposals from the US, which is trying to clinch a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, during a five-hour meeting in Moscow on Tuesday.
He added Moscow found some of the proposals acceptable, while others drew a “critical and even negative attitude”, which Putin “did not hide”.
Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, also attended the meeting.
Witkoff travelled to Moscow after Russian officials said they were open to discussing a peace plan drawn up by the US with Russia’s input.
However, the officials signalled their opposition to a revised, slimmer version of the plan incorporating changes sought by Ukraine. The full terms of the revised plan have not been disclosed.
Ushakov said several versions of a peace plan were discussed at the meeting with Putin and Witkoff, and the question of territory was raised, as well as possibilities for economic co-operation between Russia and the US.
Moscow’s insistence that Ukrainian forces give up the remaining one-fifth of Donetsk province they still hold is a major sticking point between Russia and Ukraine.
On the eve of the talks the Kremlin claimed Russian forces had seized Pokrovsk, a town in Donetsk that they have fought to take for well over a year while sustaining a large number of casualties.
Ushakov said some of the territorial proposals made by the US were “more or less acceptable”, but others did not suit Moscow, adding that a “compromise option” had yet to emerge.
Earlier photographs showed Kirill Dmitriev, a key Russian negotiator with the US on a potential peace deal, welcoming Kushner and Witkoff to Moscow, ahead of their meeting with Putin and Ushakov.
Ushakov said Russia and the US will continue talks at the level of envoys and aides, with a possible meeting between Putin and Trump depending on progress.
Speaking at a meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday, Trump described efforts to end the war as “not an easy situation”.
Earlier, Putin accused European countries of undermining Washington’s efforts to end the war. “They have no peace agenda. They are on the side of war,” the president said.
In a belligerent speech, Putin threatened to “cut Ukraine off from the sea entirely” in retaliation for Kyiv’s attacks on Russia-linked oil tankers.
He added that “we have no intention of fighting Europe — I’ve said this a hundred times. But if Europe decides to start a war, we are ready right now”.
Speaking to the Irish parliament on Tuesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not address the talks between Washington and Moscow but said it was time for Russian assets frozen by western countries to be used to help rebuild his country.
“The aggressor must be held accountable for what was done,” he said.
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