Russia and the US did not reach a compromise on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine after a five-hour meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump’s top envoys, the Kremlin has said.
President Trump has repeatedly complained that ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II has been one of the elusive foreign policy aims of his presidency.
The US president has at times scolded both Mr Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr zelensky.
Talks in moscow between Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in conjunction with his son-in-law Jared Kushner lasted until after midnight.
Afterward, Mr Putin’s top foreign policy aide, said: “compromises have not yet been found.”
Yuri Ushakov told reporters at a briefing in the Kremlin that there “is still a lot of work to be done”.
Mr Putin reacted negatively to some US proposals, Mr ushakov said.
Mr Witkoff went to the US embassy in Moscow after the talks to brief the White House, he added.
Mr Ushakov said that a meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Trump was not currently planned, but he said the talks were constructive and that there were huge opportunities for US-Russian economic cooperation.
Mr Ushakov said Mr Putin had sent a series of important signals and his greetings to Mr Trump, but that the sides had agreed not to disclose details to the media.
He added that they had discussed the “territorial problem”,Kremlin shorthand for Russian claims to the whole of Donbas,though Ukraine controls at least 5,000 sq/km of the area which Russia claims as its own.
Almost all countries recognize Donbas as part of Ukraine.
“Some American draft proposals look more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed,” mr Ushakov said.
“Some of the formulations that have been proposed to us are not suitable for us, that is – the work will continue,” he added.
Mr Witkoff, a billionaire US real estate developer who has known Mr Trump since the 1980s, alongside Mr Kushner, the husband of Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka, began talks in the Kremlin after a stroll across Red Square past the mausoleum of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin to the towers of the Kremlin.
They talked with Mr Putin, Mr Ushakov and Mr Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev via interpreters.
“Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled,” Mr Trump said yesterday in Washington.
“Not an easy situation, let me tell you.What a mess,” he said, adding that there were casualties of 25,000 to 30,000 per month in the war.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “some progress” has been