Russia says no Ukraine compromise reached after five-hour Putin talks with Trump envoys

Summary

• Putin met Trump's envoy Witkoff to discuss ending the Ukraine war, dismissing European counter-proposals as "absolutely unacceptable".
• Trump stated the situation is "not easy" with 25,000-30,000 monthly casualties, while Putin threatened to sever Ukraine's sea access.
• Zelensky fears the US might lose interest, whilst Putin insists on key demands including NATO exclusion and control of Ukrainian regions.

MOSCOW - Russia and the United States did not clinch a compromise to end the war in Ukraine after a five-hour Kremlin meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s top envoys, the Kremlin said on Dec 3.

Mr Trump has repeatedly complained that ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II has been one of the elusive foreign policy aims of his presidency. The US president has at times scolded both Mr Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Talks in Moscow between Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner went past midnight. Afterward, Mr Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said: “Compromises have not yet been found.

“There is still a lot of work to be done,” Mr Ushakov told reporters at a briefing in the Kremlin.

Mr Putin reacted negatively to some US proposals, Mr Ushakov said. Mr Witkoff went to the US embassy in Moscow after the talks to brief the White House, Mr Ushakov said.

Mr Ushakov added that a meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Trump was not currently planned, though he said the talks were constructive and that there were huge opportunities for US-Russian economic cooperation.

Mr Ushakov said Mr Putin had sent a series of important signals and his greetings to Mr Trump, but that the sides had agreed not to disclose details to the media.

He added that they had discussed the “territorial problem”, Kremlin shorthand for Russian claims to the whole of Donbas, though Ukraine controls at least 5,000 sq km of the area which Russia claims as its own. Almost all countries recognise Donbas as part of Ukraine.

“Some American draft proposals look more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed,” Mr Ushakov said. “Some of the formulations that have been proposed to us are not suitable for us, that is - the work will continue.”

Just before the meeting, Mr 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.

Mr Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war, but his efforts, including a summit with Mr Putin in Alaska in August and meetings with Ukrainian President Zelensky, 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.

Mr Witkoff is a billionaire US real estate developer who has known Mr Trump since the 1980s. Mr Kushner is the husband of Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

A smiling Mr Putin told Mr Witkoff he was glad to see him and asked him about his and Mr 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,” Mr Witkoff told Mr Putin, along with foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Putin investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

Both sides had interpreters.

‘A mess’

“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,” Mr 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 Mr Witkoff was trying to end the war.

Just before the Kremlin meeting, Mr Putin accused Europe of seeking to undermine Mr Trump’s peace efforts by making proposals that it knew were unacceptable to Russia.

“They are on the side of war,” Mr 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.”

Mr 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.

Mr Putin threatened to sever Ukraine’s access to the sea in response to drone attacks on the tankers of Russia’s “shadow fleet”
in the Black Sea.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Mr Andrii Sybiha, said Mr 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 its war, Russia has failed to conquer Ukraine, a much smaller neighbour that has been supported by European powers and the US.

Mr Zelensky, speaking in Dublin, said everything would depend on the talks in Moscow but that he was afraid the US 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.

Russia’s leader 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.”

Mr Putin has 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.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

Conflict first erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution. Russia invaded and later claimed to have annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists battled Kyiv’s armed forces in eastern Ukraine.

In video footage released on the eve of Mr Witkoff’s visit, Mr Putin hailed what his commanders said was Russia’s capture of the city of Pokrovsk
in eastern Ukraine as an important victory after a prolonged campaign.

Ukraine’s military told Reuters its forces were still holding the northern part of the city and had attacked Russian forces in southern Pokrovsk.

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. The conflict has also caused widespread destruction in Ukrainian towns and cities and forced many people from their homes.

Since the US draft proposals emerged in November, European powers have been trying to bolster Ukraine against what they see as a punitive peace deal that could open Russia to US investment in oil, gas and rare earths and return Moscow to the Group of 8.

Key Russian demands include a pledge that Ukraine would never join NATO, caps on the Ukrainian army, Russian control of the whole of Donbas, recognition of Russian control of the regions of Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Ukraine says these would amount to capitulation and leave it vulnerable to eventual Russian conquest, though Washington has also floated a 10-year security guarantee for Kyiv.

Ukraine and European powers view the war as an imperial-style land grab by Moscow and have warned that if Russia wins, then it will one day attack NATO members.

Mr Zelensky says Russia must not be rewarded for a war it started. REUTERS