Moscow — The Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin accepted some US proposals aimed at ending the war in Ukraine and rejected others but that Russia was ready to meet US negotiators as many times as it took to reach an agreement.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was speaking after talks in Moscow between Putin and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner went into the early hours of yesterday morning, with a Kremlin aide saying afterwards that “compromises have not yet been found”.
Asked if it would be correct to say that Putin had rejected the US proposals, Peskov said that it would not.
“A direct exchange of views took place yesterday for the first time,” Peskov said. “Some things were accepted, some things were marked as unacceptable — this is a normal working process of finding a compromise.”
Peskov said that Russia was grateful to Trump for his efforts but that the Kremlin would not be giving a running commentary on discussions with the US, as publicity was unlikely to be constructive.
“Work is currently being carried out at a working expert level,” Peskov said. “It is at the expert level that certain results should be achieved that will then become the basis for contacts at the highest level.”
Refined
A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals emerged in November, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who said they bowed to Moscow’s main demands.
European powers then came up with a counter-proposal, and at talks in Geneva, the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
Putin on Tuesday said European powers were trying to sink the peace talks by proposing ideas that were absolutely unacceptable to Russia.
Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters after the Witkoff talks that Moscow had previously received a 27-point set of proposals and then four additional documents which were discussed with Witkoff.
Putin last week said the US and Ukraine had divided up the initial proposals into four components. The exact contents have not been disclosed.
Compromise
Senior Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov held talks in Brussels yesterday with European leaders’ national security advisers and will now visit the US, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
He was speaking after Witkoff and Kushner met Putin on Tuesday for talks. The Kremlin said no compromise had been reached on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
“Ukrainian representatives will brief their colleagues in Europe on what is known following yesterday’s contacts by the American side in Moscow, and they will also discuss the European component of the necessary security architecture,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
After visiting Brussels, Umerov and Andrii Hnatov, chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, will begin preparations for a meeting with Trump’s envoys in the US, he added.
“This is our ongoing co-ordination with partners, and we ensure the negotiation process is fully active,” Zelensky said.
The leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals that emerged last week alarmed Ukrainian and European officials, who said it bowed to Moscow’s main demands on Nato, Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraine’s army.
European powers then came up with a counter-proposal, and at talks in Geneva, the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war. Details of those talks have not been released to the public.
