KEY POINTS
- Putin said parts of a new US peace plan for Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin.
- Putin’s comments came after a five-hour Kremlin meeting with US envoys.
- Putin declined to specify which proposals Russia rejects, calling it “premature” to disclose details.
- Russian aide Yuri Ushakov said the talks were “constructive” but no compromise was reached.
- Ukrainian negotiators will meet European and US officials in Brussels and Florida.
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that parts of a new US peace plan for Ukraine were unacceptable to the Kremlin, signalling that a deal to end the nearly four-year war remains distant despite intensified US diplomacy.
Putin made the comments after a five-hour meeting in the Kremlin this week with US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. He described the talks as “necessary”, “useful” and “very concrete”, but also “difficult work”.
Putin told India Today in a pre-recorded interview released ahead of his visit to New Delhi that the US delegation brought a detailed set of proposals. He said Washington had presented 27 or 28 points, divided into four packages for discussion.
“We had to go through each point, which is why it took so long,” he said, according to state news agency TASS. “There were issues on which no consensus was reached. In some cases, we said, ‘Yes, we can discuss this,’ but we cannot agree to it. It is difficult work.”
Putin said the proposals were based on agreements discussed during his earlier meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska.
He declined to disclose which proposals Moscow found unacceptable, saying it would be “premature” and could “disrupt the working process that President Trump is trying to establish”.
Trump’s push for breakthrough
Trump has launched his strongest diplomatic effort yet to end the conflict, sending Witkoff and Kushner to Moscow for marathon talks.
Speaking in Washington after their return, Trump said the envoys reported that Putin “would like to make a deal”, though the US president provided no details.
“Their impression was that he’d like to end the war,” Trump said.
A senior Trump administration official said Witkoff and Kushner would now meet Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, in Miami on Thursday for further discussions.
Russia signals no shift in core demands
Despite the diplomatic effort, Putin reiterated the Kremlin’s long-standing positions. He repeated Moscow’s demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the Donbas region.
“Either we liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops leave these territories and stop fighting there,” he said in the India Today interview.
He said Russia had previously urged Kyiv to pull back forces from Donbas to avoid military confrontation. “No, they prefer the path of armed confrontation,” he said.
Talks ‘constructive’ but no breakthrough
Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov described the meeting with the US envoys as “extremely useful, constructive and highly informative”.
He said both sides reviewed documents previously conveyed by Washington and that the US partners “confirmed their readiness to take into account our remarks and key proposals”.
But he also said “no compromise has been reached” and “the work will continue”.
Witkoff did not speak to the media before leaving Moscow.
Ukraine and Europe prepare for further talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, and Chief of the General Staff, Major General Andriy Hnatov, would meet European national security advisers in Brussels on Thursday.
They will then travel to Florida for new talks with Witkoff and Kushner.
A planned meeting in Europe earlier this week between Witkoff, Kushner and Zelensky was reportedly cancelled, a signal that no major breakthrough emerged from the Moscow talks.
The US-drafted peace plan, described by some Western analysts as highly favourable to Russia, includes around 20–28 points. Ukrainian and European officials are seeking changes that they believe would safeguard Ukraine’s sovereignty.
