High-stakes discussions between the United States and Russia ended Tuesday, December 2nd, without a breakthrough, as the Kremlin said “no compromise” had been found yet on the key question of territory.
Russian president Vladimir Putin met U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin for five hours, reviewing the revised American peace plan that had been adjusted after pressure from Kyiv and its European backers. According to presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, “so far we haven’t found a compromise, but some American solutions can be discussed.”
“Some proposed formulations do not fit us, and work will continue,” he added. “There were some points we could agree on,” the top Putin diplomatic aide said, but “the president did not hide our critical, even negative, stance on a number of proposals.”
Putin has demanded that Kyiv surrender territory Moscow claims as its own. The Kremlin also rejects any European force in Ukraine to monitor a truce.
President Donald Trump said progress on ending the nearly four-year-long war would not be easy, calling the situation “a mess.” In an interview broadcast Tuesday night on Fox News, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said talks with Russia “have made some progress” to end the war with Ukraine.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that any plan must end the war for good, acknowledging “there will be no simple solutions,” and insisting that “what matters is that everything is fair and transparent.” Ironically, his remarks come after Ukraine has been rocked by accusations of high level corruption, with Kyiv’s justice and energy ministers resigning in November amid a sweeping scandal, allegedly involved in the laundering of as much as $100 million (€86.4 million).
