Russian President Vladimir Putin met with US Ambassador Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Thursday. The talks on the US plan to end the war in Ukraine lasted more than three and a half hours.
Witkoff accompanied US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as Washington pushed through a plan to end the war in Ukraine, the AFP news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Putin appeared alongside his foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, and his envoy for international economic affairs, Kirill Dmitriev.
The Kremlin described the meeting between Putin and US envoy Witkoff as “useful in every respect”, according to AFP.
What happened on Thursday?
There was no immediate word on the outcome of the meeting, which ended well after midnight Moscow time. But US and Ukrainian officials reportedly said they had made significant progress on a 20-point plan to end Russia’s all-out invasion, which has lasted nearly four years and spiraled into Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Kiev announced it had agreed post-war security guarantees with Washington, even as Moscow and Kiev remain at odds over the key issue of territory in the post-war settlement.
Russia, which occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine, asserts full control over the eastern Donbas region as part of the deal. But Kiev warned that ceding the land would free Moscow and said it would not sign a peace deal that did not deter Russia from launching a renewed offensive.
Witkoff previously said he believed the two sides were “sitting on one issue,” without elaborating.
The high-stakes meeting came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a draft deal was “almost, almost ready” and that he and Trump agreed on post-war security guarantees.
what’s next
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuriy Ushakov said that after Putin’s talks with three US envoys on Thursday, security talks between Russian, US and Ukrainian officials would follow in Abu Dhabi later on Friday.
However, Russia has warned that lasting peace will not be possible unless territorial issues are resolved.
Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov was quoted by Reuters as saying that Russian Admiral Igor Kostyukov will lead Moscow’s team at the trilateral security talks, and Investment Plenipotentiary Kirill Dmitriev will meet separately on economic issues with Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s envoy.
But as he outlined the next steps, Ushakov stopped short of celebrating any major breakthrough.
“Most importantly, during these talks between our president and the Americans, it was reiterated that without resolving the territorial issue according to the formula agreed upon in Anchorage, there is no hope of achieving a long-term settlement,” he said, referring to last year’s Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.
