Russian President Vladimir Putin met US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin yesterday for talks on a possible way to end the deadliest European conflict since the Second World War.
Just before the meeting, Putin warned Europe that it would face swift defeat if it went to war with Russia, and he dismissed European counter-proposals on Ukraine as being absolutely unacceptable to Russia.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war, but his efforts, including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August and meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have not brought peace.
A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals emerged last week, alarming 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 United States and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
A smiling Putin told Witkoff he was glad to see him and asked him about his and Kushner’s walk around Moscow, which included a stroll across Red Square past the mausoleum of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin to the towers of the Kremlin.
“It is a magnificent city,” Witkoff told Putin, along with foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Putin investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Both sides had interpreters.
The Kremlin talks were ongoing past Moscow midnight after more than four hours.
“Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled. Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting in Washington, adding that there were casualties of 25,000 to 30,000 per month in the war.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has led efforts to recraft the original peace plan to account for Ukrainian and European concerns, said Witkoff was trying to end the war.
Just before the Kremlin meeting, Putin accused Europe of seeking to undermine Trump’s peace efforts by making proposals that it knew were unacceptable to Russia.
“They are on the side of war,” Putin said of the European powers. “We can clearly see that all these changes are aimed at only one thing: to block the entire peace process altogether, to make such demands which are absolutely unacceptable to Russia.”
Putin said Russia did not want war with Europe, but that if Europe started one, it would end so swiftly that there would be no one left for Russia to negotiate with.
Putin threatened to sever Ukraine’s access to the sea in response to drone attacks on tankers of Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Putin’s remarks showed he was not ready to end the war.
Russian forces control more than 19 per cent of Ukraine, or 115,600 square km, up only one percentage point from two years ago, though they have advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.
But nearly four years into the Ukraine war, Russia has failed to conquer Ukraine, a much smaller neighbour that has been supported by European powers and the US.
Zelenskiy, speaking in Dublin, said everything would depend on the talks in Moscow but that he was afraid the United States could lose interest in the peace process.
“There will be no easy solutions ... It is important that everything is fair and open, so that there are no games behind Ukraine’s back,” he said.
Putin has said the discussions so far are not about a draft agreement but about a set of proposals that he said last week “could be the basis for future agreements.”
He said he is ready to talk peace, but that if Ukraine refuses an agreement, then Russia’s forces will advance further and take more Ukrainian territory.
US officials have put the casualty toll in the war at more than 1.2 million killed or wounded. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses its losses.
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