Five-hour talks between Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff have not yielded the expected results, and the implementation of the peace plan does not look likely in the near future, writes the BBC.
Kremlin spokesman said that the meeting was constructive, but parts of the plan are still unacceptable to Russia. US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Witkoff, and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow to continue weeks of diplomatic efforts to end the war. The US team has not commented on the progress of the talks.
Putin said on the 2nd of December, before meeting with US representatives, that Moscow did not accept the changes made to the US-drafted peace plan by Kyiv and its European allies. He added that if Europe wants to start a war, the Russians are ready for it.
Ukraine and its allies have been pushing for revisions to the peace plan, which the White House has sought to quickly approve. The Kremlin has previously said it was satisfied with the initial version of the plan, which was seen as favorable to the Russians. After the peace plan was unexpectedly made public in November, it has undergone significant revisions.
Asked about the plan after the meeting in Moscow,
Putin’s adviser Yuri Ushakov said the Kremlin agreed with some points
but that there were things that had been criticized. He added that a compromise had not yet been reached and much work lay ahead. The main contentious issues remain the redistribution of territory and the provision of security guarantees to Ukraine.
Before the meeting, Putin lashed out at European leaders’ support for Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022. The Russian dictator said Europeans were living under the false illusion that they could achieve a strategic defeat of Russia. Russia has not planned to start a war with Europe, but if Europe suddenly wants to start one, Moscow is ready.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was waiting for information about the meeting from the US team, but it was not known whether Witkoff and Kushner planned to travel to Kyiv or any European capital to continue the discussions in person. On the 2nd of December, Zelensky said that the chances of ending the war were greater than ever before, but much work still needed to be done on the peace plan. He added that everything depended on the outcome of the talks in Moscow. The Ukrainian president noted that there were no easy solutions and repeatedly insisted that Kyiv should participate in the talks: “We have to stop the war in such a manner that in one year, Russia would not come back.”
In late November, Ukrainian representatives and the US team, which also included Vitkoff, Kushner and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, discussed the peace plan at length.
The White House later said the plan had been significantly revised, but gave no further details.
Putin, who believes Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield, has not backed down from his demands, while Zelensky has said Ukraine will not hand over the country’s eastern regions to the Russians. While talks were underway in Moscow, Trump told his administration that the conflict was not easy to resolve, calling it a mess.
Rubio told Fox News that the United States had made some progress in recent weeks, but declined to say how soon an agreement could be reached, saying much depended on Putin. He noted that when it comes to Russia, decisions should be made by Putin, not his advisers, and only Putin can end the war on Moscow’s side.
Kyiv’s European allies have countered the US-sponsored 28-point peace plan with their own, and many points have been removed from the US plan, including the formal recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as Russian territory.
Meanwhile, fighting continues on the front lines. The Ukrainian army has reported that fighting is still taking place near Pokrovsk, although Moscow has insisted that the city is fully occupied.
Read also: Lithuania, Belarus exchange diplomatic complaints over airspace violations