A meeting in the Kremlin between Russian and US delegations on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine was "productive, but there is still a lot of work to do," Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters tonight.
Putin met with Steve Witkoff, an envoy to US President Donald Trump, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The talks, part of a renewed effort by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal, began at around 7:40 p.m. on Tuesday and ended five hours later, at around 1 a.m. on Wednesday. Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.
A few days ago, US officials spoke with the Ukrainian team in Florida, USA, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the meeting as cautiously optimistic.
At the center of the effort is Trump's peace plan, which became public last month after it was leaked to the media and sparked concerns that it was heavily pro-Moscow. The plan's proposal includes some of the Kremlin's key demands that Kiev has rejected as unacceptable, such as Ukraine handing over the entire eastern Donbas region to Russia and abandoning its bid to join NATO. Negotiators have since indicated that the framework of the plan has changed, but it is not clear how.
On Tuesday, Putin accused Kiev's European allies of sabotaging US-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
"They don't have a peace agenda, they are on the side of war," Putin said of the Europeans.
Putin's comments appear to be his latest attempt to sow discord between Trump and European countries and lay the groundwork for absolving Moscow of blame for the lack of progress toward peace.
He accused Europe of replacing peace proposals with "demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia" and thus "blocking the entire peace process," blaming Moscow for this. He also reiterated his long-standing position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe, although this concern is often expressed by some European countries.
"But if Europe suddenly wants to wage war with us and starts it, we are ready. There is no doubt about that," Putin said.
Russia began the war in 2022 with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a neighboring sovereign state, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to financially and militarily support Ukraine, wean it off its energy dependence on Russia, and strengthen its own militaries to deter Moscow from occupying more territory.
Europeans worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have the freedom to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which have already faced incursions by Russian drones and fighter jets and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.
Trump's peace plan relies on Europe to provide the bulk of the funding and security guarantees for post-war Ukraine, although no European officials appear to have been consulted on the original plan. European governments have therefore insisted on ensuring that the peace effort addresses their concerns.
Coinciding with Vitkoff's trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that helped his country hold its own in the fight against the Russian invasion.
Zelensky said on Tuesday that he was expecting reports from US envoys in Moscow soon on whether talks could resume after Trump's initial 28-point plan was reduced to 20 items in talks on Sunday between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida.
"The future and the next steps depend on those signals," Zelensky told reporters in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin.
"If the signals show fair play towards our partners, then we could meet with the American delegation soon," he said.
"There is a lot of dialogue, but we need results. Our people are dying every day," Zelensky said. "I am ready... to meet with President Trump. Everything depends on today's talks," he added.
After months of frustration in trying to stop the fighting, Trump has dispatched officials to drum up support for his peace proposals. Talks have so far been moving along smoothly, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials.
Zelensky said he met with a Ukrainian delegation on Tuesday that returned from talks with U.S. representatives in Florida. Rubio said there was progress but "there's still work to be done."
Zelensky said the Florida talks were guided by a document that both sides had drawn up at an earlier meeting in Geneva. The Ukrainian leader said the document was now "finalized," although he did not explain what that meant.
Ukrainian diplomats are working to ensure that European partners are "significantly involved" in decision-making, Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app, warning of what he called "Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at managing the negotiations."
Zelensky met with political leaders and MPs in Dublin during his first official visit. Ireland is officially neutral and not a member of NATO, but has sent "non-lethal military equipment" to Ukraine. More than 100.000 Ukrainians have moved to Ireland since Russia launched the war on February 24, 2022.
While consultations this week could jump-start the peace process, few details have been made public. It remains unclear how envoys will bridge the gap between the two sides over basic differences such as who keeps what territory. European officials say the road to peace will be long.
European leaders want their voices heard after being largely ignored by Washington. They are also working on future security guarantees for Ukraine.
Zelensky was in Paris on Monday, and French President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke with Vitkoff by phone. He also spoke with the leaders of eight European countries, as well as senior European Union officials and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Diplomats are facing difficulties in trying to bridge Russian and Ukrainian differences and persuade them to reach compromises. Key obstacles - over whether Kiev should cede territory to Moscow and how to ensure Ukraine's future security - appear to be unresolved.
Zelensky is under immense pressure during one of the darkest periods of his country's war. In addition to managing diplomatic pressure, he must find the money to keep Ukraine afloat, address a corruption scandal that has reached the top of his government, and keep Russia at bay on the battlefield.
The Kremlin claimed late Monday that Russian forces had captured the key town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. However, Zelensky said in Paris that fighting in Pokrovsk was still ongoing on Monday.
The Ukrainian General Staff also denied Russian claims on Tuesday that its forces had captured Pokrovsk, calling it a propaganda ploy. The Ukrainian military is preparing additional logistical routes to supply troops in the area, it said in a Facebook post.
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