Russia and the US reached “no compromise” in almost five hours of discussions to end the war in Ukraine, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said late on Tuesday.
Emerging after the marathon talks to speak to press, Ushakov described the negotiations as “constructive, very useful and substantive” but emphasized that there is a “lot of work” ahead in remarks reported by Russian state media.
The talks took place between US special envoy Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin alongside several Kremlin aides in Moscow.
They followed adjustments to an original 28-point plan, which earned condemnation as a Kremlin “wish list” by European allies and Kyiv, before the amended plan was presented to Moscow for talks.
However, Ushakov said that Moscow had discussed “the essence of what is laid down” in the documents rather than “specific formulations” with the US delegation.
He added that even though acceptable compromises had not yet been found, Moscow would “continue contacts” with the US.
“As for the possibility of a meeting at the presidential level, this will depend on what progress we can achieve,” he explained.
Putin had previously described European edits to the plan as “unacceptable” and suggested that Europe was attempting to jeopardize negotiations.
He was said to have kept the US delegation waiting while delivering a keynote speech at the VTB Investment Forum located several miles from the Kremlin, at which he said that Russia was “ready” for war with Europe if the latter sought it. The meeting with the US delegation started more than an hour after the scheduled time.
Ahead of the meeting, an anonymous Russian official close to the matter told NBC News that there were “three pillars” on which Moscow would not compromise.
“One is the territory of the Donbas. The second is a limit on Ukraine’s armed forces. The third is the recognition of territory by America and Europe,” they said, adding that Moscow could be flexible on secondary issues such as frozen Russian assets held in Europe.
On the issue of territory, one of the most thorny in negotiations so far, Ushakov said that it was the “most important” for Moscow.
“Some American developments look more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed. Some formulations that were proposed do not suit us,” he said, without elaborating.
Ushakov also said that economic cooperation had been an emphasis in talks: “Of course, huge prospects for future economic interaction between the two countries were discussed. By the way, this has been talked about a lot at previous meetings.”
“But now it was emphasized that if we want to really cooperate, there are huge opportunities, so we need to show real willingness to do this.”
It was reported in recent days that behind-the-scenes diplomacy to end the war had involved arrangements for clandestine business deals between Russian oligarchs and US business figures on which US security bodies had not been briefed.
Furthermore, Witkoff and Kushner will not fly to Europe or to Kyiv to continue negotiations, but will return to Washington, Ushakov claimed.
Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s economic envoy who has been heavily involved in negotiations, was more succinct than Ushakov, posting pictures of the meeting on social media with the caption: “Productive.”