Five hours of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior U.S. envoys produced no visible progress toward ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, Kremlin officials said.
Putin met on Tuesday with Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, in the Kremlin. Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov described the discussions as “positive” but said “so far, a compromise hasn’t been found” on territorial issues that Moscow views as essential to any settlement.
Ukraine has ruled out ceding any land, including four regions Russia partially occupies and claims as its own.
When asked if peace was closer or further away after the meeting, Ushakov replied, “Not further, that’s for sure,” adding that “there’s still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow,” the Associated Press reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “not correct” to claim Putin had rejected a U.S. peace proposal, but declined to provide details.
“We’re deliberately not going to add anything,” Peskov told reporters, per AP. “It’s understood that the quieter these negotiations are conducted, the more productive they will be.”
European officials reacted with skepticism. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Putin “should end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace,” according to AP.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged the Russian leader to “stop wasting the world’s time.”
At a NATO meeting in Brussels, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Putin “has not changed any course” and “doesn’t want to have any kind of peace.”
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen called for Russia to begin with “a full ceasefire” as the best confidence-building step.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte stressed that military aid to Kyiv would continue.
“We have to make sure that whilst (talks) take place … Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going,” Rutte said, per AP.
Canada, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands announced hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding to purchase U.S.-made weapons for Ukraine.
Fighting persisted overnight. Ukraine’s air force reported Russia launched 111 drones, while Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it downed 102 Ukrainian drones. Russian strikes killed two civilians and injured three others in the Dnipropetrovsk region, regional officials said.
The outcome of U.S.-led diplomacy now hinges on whether the Trump administration presses Moscow or Kyiv harder for concessions, analysts say. A U.S. draft plan leaked last month drew criticism in Europe for appearing to favor Russian demands.
