A five-hour meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's top envoys concluded without reaching a compromise on a Ukraine peace deal, the Kremlin confirmed, as Moscow's hardline territorial demands collided with revised Western terms. The same day Putin publicly accused European governments of derailing U.S.-led peace efforts with demands "absolutely unacceptable to Russia," claiming Europe was "on the side of the war" and "preventing the US administration from achieving peace on Ukraine."
The session, Tuesday at the Kremlin, brought together Putin, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff—a Trump-aligned real estate developer—and Jared Kushner, alongside Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Speaking to reporters around 21:30 GMT, Ushakov characterized the talks as "useful, constructive," but stated plainly that "a compromise option was not found." Territory, he said, remained the central sticking point. Dmitriev later posted on X that the meeting was "productive," appending a dove emoji—a gesture that offered color but little substance.
The territorial red line
The outcome underscores the gulf between Moscow's maximalist position and the negotiating framework that has emerged from months of shuttle diplomacy. According to reporting by CNN and Reuters, the Kremlin continues to treat full Russian control—and legal recognition—of the Donbas territories it claims but does not fully occupy as a non-negotiable precondition. Moscow also insists on a formal NATO pledge never to admit Ukraine and on caps to Ukraine's military capabilities that critics say would leave Kyiv defenseless.
Ushakov told reporters that some American ideas were "more or less acceptable," but others "don't work for us." That formulation suggests Moscow sees room for tactical bargaining on process or enforcement mechanisms, but no give on borders or alliance membership. For institutional observers of EU and NATO frameworks, the problem is familiar: absent binding security guarantees with credible enforcement triggers, any non-NATO arrangement struggles for durability—and Moscow knows it.
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Voices from Washington and Kyiv
Trump told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that his envoys were "over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled," calling the situation "not an easy" one and claiming monthly casualties of 25,000 to 30,000. Ending the war has been a stated priority of his presidency; repeated failures to do so have become a source of visible frustration for the U.S. president, who has at times scolded both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Speaking in Dublin, Zelenskiy said he was waiting for signals from the U.S. delegation after the Moscow session. He warned that Washington might lose interest and insisted any process be "fair and open" with "no games behind Ukraine's back." The phrasing reflects Kyiv's deep anxiety over opaque bilateral negotiations that could lock in territorial losses or security concessions without Ukrainian consent.
What comes next
Ushakov said "work will continue," but offered no timeline. A Trump–Putin summit, he noted, depends on progress—a formulation that makes any meeting contingent on Moscow seeing movement toward its red lines. Kyiv, meanwhile, awaits detailed readouts before deciding whether to send a higher-level delegation into the process.
The negotiation landscape remains defined by the tension between territory and guarantees. Moscow wants legal recognition of occupied land and a NATO veto; Kyiv and its European backers insist on sovereignty and enforceable security commitments. The revised U.S. framework, post-Geneva, attempts to bridge that gap with creative ambiguity—deferred status questions, phased timelines, third-party monitoring. But creativity has its limits when one side's floor is the other's ceiling. For now, the gap is measured not in drafting nuances but in fundamentally incompatible visions of what a post-war Ukraine can be.
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