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Putin meets Trump envoys Witkoff, Kushner ahead of Russia-US-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi
This was Witkoff’s seventh visit to Putin in the past year as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a peace deal, so far without success.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held about four hours of talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin on the latest peace plan aimed at ending his war on Ukraine, with further negotiations set to begin Friday.
However, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in an audio recording on Telegram early Friday that “the territorial issue” regarding parts of Ukraine demanded by Putin had not been overcome in the discussions. There’s “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” until it is, he said.
“We, as Vladimir Putin, emphasized, are sincerely interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic means,” Ushakov added. “Until this is achieved, Russia will continue to systematically pursue the objectives of the special military operation on the battlefield.”
He said the US, Ukraine and Russia will hold security talks in the United Arab Emirates, with Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russian military intelligence, set to lead Moscow’s delegation to the so-called trilateral working group.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Thursday that top Ukrainian officials will attend the talks in Abu Dhabi, including Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and the head of his presidential office, Kyrylo Budanov, who’s the former chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence.
Separately, Witkoff and Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, will discuss bilateral Russia-US economic matters in Abu Dhabi.
Ushakov described the negotiations in the Kremlin as “exceptionally substantive, constructive, and, I would say, extremely frank and trusting.”
This was Witkoff’s seventh visit to Putin in the past year as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a peace deal — so far without success. US and Ukrainian officials have said they’ve made significant progress on a 20-point plan to end the Russian full-scale invasion that’s lasted almost four years and spiraled into Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Still, Kyiv and Moscow remain at an impasse on key points including Putin’s demands for territory that belongs to Ukraine and remains under its control.
Russia is insisting on securing what it calls the “Anchorage understandings” reached at Putin’s August summit with Trump in Alaska. That would require Ukraine to turn over the whole of its eastern Donetsk region, while fighting would be frozen along the current lines of contact in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine rejects demands to withdraw its forces from heavily fortified areas of Donetsk that Putin’s military has failed to occupy in fighting that stretches back to 2014. US proposals have suggested turning the unoccupied area into a de-militarized or free economic zone under special administration.
The envoys arrived in Moscow for the late-night meeting with Putin hours after Trump held “good” talks with Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“It’s not like we’re discussing things that have been discussed for six or seven months. He came and said he wants to make a deal,” Trump told reporters later on Air Force One.
He said he also asked Zelenskiy how Ukraine has managed widespread heating outages caused by Russian airstrikes on power plants and other infrastructure.
“He gave me the answer: ‘It’s pretty amazing what they do to live,’” Trump said.
Putin received a draft of the peace plan earlier this month via Dmitriev that had been coordinated with Ukraine and European counterparts, according to people familiar with the matter. The documents were passed to Moscow informally for review, allowing Putin to prepare feedback and propose changes ahead of the visit by Witkoff and Kushner, who’s Trump’s son-in-law.
The Kremlin viewed the proposal as a significant step forward, the people said, even though it fell short of a finalized agreement and many issues of interest to Moscow were either missing or framed in ways they found unsatisfactory.
Before his trip, Witkoff expressed optimism at a breakfast panel on Ukraine at Davos on Thursday. “This is the most important endeavor that Jared and I have,” he said. “I think we’re going to get it done.”
Even as peace negotiations go on, Putin has stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s power sector in freezing winter temperatures, leaving millions of people without heating and water amid freezing winter temperatures. Ukraine has also struck Russian energy infrastructure causing disruptions.
A visibly angry Zelenskiy tore into Europe for its apparent lack of willingness to stop Putin during a speech in Davos on Thursday.
“Europe loves to discuss the future but avoids taking action today,” he told the audience. “Where is the line of leaders who are ready to act?”
