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US President Donald Trump on Thursday said a US delegation had a “very good” meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Washington’s Ukraine peace proposal, adding that the talks gave the “impression” that Putin “would like to end the war.”The comments came a day after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law met Putin in Moscow for five hours to review proposals outlined in four documents previously submitted to the Kremlin.
“Putin had a very good meeting yesterday with Jared Kushner and with Steve Whitkoff. What comes out of that meeting, I can’t tell you because it does take two to tango,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, as cited by ANI. “He (Putin) would like to end the war, that was their impression.” However, despite the extensive five-hour discussion, the two sides only reviewed the broad outlines of the US proposals and did not reach any compromises or agree to hold a new Putin–Trump summit, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.Ushakov noted that while both delegations reviewed possible pathways to a settlement, several key disagreements remained unresolved. “We could agree on some things, and the president confirmed this to his interlocutors,” Ushakov said. “Other things provoked criticism, and the president also made no secret of our critical and even negative attitude toward a number of proposals. But the main thing is that a very useful discussion took place.”Ushakov stressed that the talks would remain private. “The discussion was confidential,” he said. “We agreed not to disclose the substance of the negotiations.”He said that meaningful progress has yet to be achieved, though diplomatic engagement “continues.” The Kremlin adviser added that Putin asked Witkoff to pass “a number of important political signals” directly to Trump.The 28-point US peace proposal unveiled last month drew criticism from Ukraine and several European governments, who argued it leaned too far in Moscow’s favor. US officials later said certain provisions had been revised following feedback from Kyiv and European partners.Trump has intensified his push in recent weeks, convinced that Ukraine’s battlefield setbacks and the rising costs for Moscow could move both sides toward a negotiated deal. American officials say that in working to put proposals on paper and present them to both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, more diplomacy has taken place in the past few weeks than in the previous three years, as cited by the New York Times. People familiar with the discussions say negotiations are now moving on four parallel tracks. One focuses on matters related to Ukraine’s sovereignty, including potential limits on the size of its peacetime army and the range of its missiles. The remaining tracks address territorial questions, economic cooperation, and broader European security issues.Tuesday’s meeting marked the sixth and longest session between Witkoff and Putin in Russia this year. For the first time, they were joined by Jared Kushner, who helped negotiate October’s Gaza ceasefire and was a principal architect of the Abraham Accords normalizing ties between Israel and several Arab states during Trump’s first term.
