Five hours of talks in Moscow between the United States’ delegation and Russian President Vladimir Putin on a U.S. plan to resolve the war in Ukraine ended without a “compromise option,” the Kremlin said Wednesday, adding that several of the U.S. ideas were unacceptable.
Even without a comprehensive briefing on what transpired during the lengthy talks, it did not appear as if the swift end to the conflict desired by President Donald Trump is near. Ukrainian and European officials expressed doubt on Wednesday about Putin’s interest in ending the war diplomatically.
“So far no compromise option has been found, but some American proposals appear more or less acceptable,” said Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, who attended the meeting and spoke to Russian media right afterward. “The president did not hide our critical or negative view of certain proposals.”
On Wednesday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that it was incorrect to say Putin had rejected the plan. “Some things were accepted, some things were rejected as unacceptable.”
The U.S. delegation, led by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and, for the first time, joined by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, presented Putin with four documents outlining Washington’s plan. The Kremlin said the two sides agreed not to share the contents of the talks with the media to avoid “megaphone diplomacy,” but analysts believe the four documents break down the initial 28-point plan into four separate issues, probably dealing with territory, economic reintegration of both countries and security guarantees.
Ushakov said the discussion touched directly on territorial issues, which Moscow considers essential to any resolution, as well as the “huge opportunities” for future U.S.-Russia economic cooperation, which is something Moscow has been pitching to Washington in a bid to expand the potential truce in Ukraine talks to restoring wider bilateral relations.
“But some American proposals appear more or less acceptable — and they need to be discussed,” Ushakov added. “Certain wording we were offered is unacceptable. So, the work will continue.”
Alexander Baunov, an analyst with Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that Moscow views the initial 28-point plant as its starting point in negotiations and won’t accept a version that makes the proposal less favorable to the Kremlin. Before the meeting, U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators had modified the proposal to make it more palatable to Kyiv.
“Putin is happy with the war’s progress. He changes into his military uniform three times a month and personally commands generals over maps,” Baunov said in a Telegram post, referring to Putin’s increasingly frequent television appearances in uniform to receive positive war news.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that he expects a debrief from the U.S. side once the talks with Russia conclude, though it remains unclear when that update will arrive. Flight-tracking data showed Witkoff’s jet returning directly to the United States from Moscow.
Meanwhile, NATO foreign ministers are convening in Brussels on Wednesday to assess progress on the U.S. plan. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio is skipping the meeting, fueling European unease that key allies are being sidelined in negotiations with Russia. Several European officials said early Wednesday they still did not know the outcome of the Witkoff-Kushner meeting with Putin.
Rubio, who was not part of the Moscow delegation, said late Tuesday that “some progress” had been made on the truce proposal, but “we’re still not there — we’re still not close enough.” He stressed that “only Putin can end this war on the Russian side,” and highlighted a major sticking point: Moscow’s demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the entire Donbas region. Ukraine has long rejected ceding territory Russia has failed to seize militarily.
“What they’re literally fighting over now is about a 30- to 50-kilometer space and the 20 percent of the Donetsk region that remains,” Rubio said on Fox News. “And so what we have tried to do — and I think have made some progress — is figure out what could the Ukrainians live with that gives them security guarantees for the future they’re never going to be invaded again.”
Ukraine’s positions have been weakened by a high-level corruption scandal that engulfed Zelensky’s inner circle, and swallowed up his longtime controversial adviser Andriy Yermak. Kyiv is also under severe financial pressure as direct U.S. funding dried up and European governments scramble to unlock new funds to aid Ukraine. Russia, too, is straining under war costs and declining oil revenue, with its newly approved three-year federal budget projecting a deficit.
Some analysts argued that the costs of waging the war for both sides are beginning to outweigh the political practicality of continuing it, making the current U.S. attempts more of an opening to achieve a truce.
“Putin is not in the position of a person who wants peace at any cost, so for now he is only prepared to end the war on terms that suit him,” said Vladimir Pastukhov, Russia expert and honorary professor at University College London. “The terms of this peace will be unfair, humiliating for Ukraine, and offensive for Europe. However, they will be significantly less unfair, humiliating, and offensive than the terms of the Istanbul Agreement initialed in the spring of 2022.”
“There is no reason to believe that the parties will take advantage of the window of opportunity that has arisen, but it is safe to say that they currently have one,” Pastukhov added in his Telegram blog post.
Tatiana Stanovaya, also of the Carnegie Center, said that Moscow’s main calculation in the talks with the U.S. is to get Washington to “pressure Kyiv to accept these terms as the only viable route to peace.”
Ahead of the talks with Witkoff and Kushner, Putin threatened to cut Ukraine off from Black Sea access, blaming attacks on oil tankers on Kyiv — accusations Ukraine denied. He also declared that Russia is prepared for a war with Europe “right now if Europe starts it,” rhetoric that deepened Kyiv’s doubts about the feasibility of a ceasefire.
“For the second day in a row, Putin makes statements that demonstrate that he does not plan to end the war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X. “Russia must stop wasting the world’s time, which must be the time for peace.”
Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel called Putin’s comments about potential conflict with Europe “horrible” during a meeting in Brussels, adding that this should be taken as “a serious warning.”
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said while the U.S. efforts for peace were constant, “we have also to admit that Russia is not meeting them with any flexibility.”
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