The Kremlin says talks with U.S. envoys yielded no breakthrough on peace in Ukraine, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed guarded optimism that Washington’s renewed diplomatic push could bring the conflict closer to resolution.
Russia and the United States failed to reach a breakthrough on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin confirmed after five hours of high-level talks.
Participants include Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the meeting, which extended past midnight inside the Kremlin walls, was “constructive” but produced no compromise on what he described as one of the most difficult questions — territory.
“Compromises have not yet been found. There is still a lot of work to be done,” Ushakov told reporters. “Peace is no closer, but also no further away.”
He added that some U.S. proposals were “more or less acceptable,” while others “are not suitable for us.”
According to Ushakov, Putin reacted negatively to certain American ideas, particularly those touching on Russian claims to the whole of Donbas, an area Ukraine partly controls but which almost all countries recognise as Ukrainian territory.
Witkoff, a long-time Trump associate, and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, began their Kremlin visit after walking across Red Square and were joined in talks by Putin’s aide Ushakov and sovereign fund chief Kirill Dmitriev.
The envoys later briefed the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Ushakov said.
Despite the lack of progress, Ushakov said the talks were businesslike and that Putin had sent “important signals” and his greetings to Trump.
No further summit between the two leaders is currently planned, though both sides expressed interest in exploring wider economic cooperation.
The discussions followed weeks of speculation about a set of 28 U.S. draft peace proposals that leaked in November, alarming European and Ukrainian officials who feared they gave too much ground to Moscow.
In response, European powers crafted their own counter-proposal, and at subsequent talks in Geneva, U.S. and Ukrainian representatives said they had agreed on an “updated and refined peace framework.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking during an official visit to Dublin, said he was encouraged by Washington’s continued engagement.
“A little bit of optimism was in my words because of some speed of negotiations, and from the American side, their interest in it,” he said. “It showed that America is not withdrawing now from any kind of diplomatic way of dialogue — and it is good.”
Zelenskyy, however, cautioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains unwilling to end the conflict.
“He really doesn’t want to finish this war because he didn’t get all the goals he wanted at the very beginning of this aggression,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he expects the U.S. to “pressure both sides” while insisting on fairness and transparency.
Putin, for his part, warned just hours before meeting the U.S. delegation that while Russia did not seek war with Europe, any confrontation would end swiftly.
He also threatened to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea in response to recent drone attacks on Russian tankers in the Black Sea.
On the battlefield, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that its troops had captured two more settlements, Zeleny Gai and Dobropolye in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukrainian officials denied Moscow’s narrative, saying their forces were maintaining pressure in Kupiansk and targeting Russian personnel and logistics hubs. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russian advances “exist only on a propaganda level.”
The conflict, now in its third year, has become the most devastating in Europe since World War Two, with U.S. President Trump recently noting estimated casualties of up to 30,000 per month.
Despite renewed diplomatic manoeuvring, both Moscow and Kyiv acknowledge that genuine peace remains distant but for the first time in months, the diplomatic door appears open again.
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