According to a Putin adviser, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff held “productive” three-hour talks in Moscow on Friday.
One topic of conversation, according to Yuri Ushakov, was the potential for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine to resume.
Although the US has not disclosed the specifics of the meeting, US President Donald Trump made hints that a deal was imminent during the meeting.
In the meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on partners to put additional pressure on Russia, accusing Moscow of rejecting a prior US-sponsored interim truce.
On his fourth trip to Russia since the year began, Witkoff arrived in central Moscow in a convoy of cars that caused traffic to stop.
Ushakov, a Putin aide, called the three-hour discussions “constructive and highly useful”.
He claimed that it had strengthened the “alignment of the US and Russian stances not only on Ukraine but on a variety of other international issues.”
“The prospect of resuming direct negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives was specifically discussed with regard to the Ukrainian problem,” he continued.
For the first time since the beginning of the conflict, Putin indicated earlier this week that he was amenable to negotiations with Zelensky.
His comments were thought to be in reaction to the Ukrainian president’s suggestion that the 30-hour Easter truce be prolonged for an additional 30 days. There is still no agreed-upon truce.
Trump has been putting increasing pressure on Kyiv to commit to territorial concessions as part of a war-ending deal with Moscow.
One particular source of contention is the seized Crimean peninsula, which Russia unlawfully annexed in 2014.
In Kyiv on Friday, Zelensky told reporters that “our position is unchanged – only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which lands are Ukrainian.” Zelensky has consistently rejected the idea of recognizing Crimea as a part of Russia.
However, he then stated that if a “complete and unconditional ceasefire” is reached, “territorial concerns” could be handled.
“A complete and unconditional ceasefire creates the opportunity to talk about everything,” he stated.
Trump’s statement that “Crimea will stay with Russia” during an interview with Time magazine was another point he brought up.
Zelensky stated, “I agree with President Trump that we do not now have enough armaments to regain control of the Crimean peninsula, and what he says is correct.”
Although the US peace plan has not been made public, rumors indicate that it calls for Russia to retain the territory it has acquired, which amounts to around 20% of Ukraine’s land. This is a favorable condition for Moscow.
There are notable differences between US ideas that were presented to European officials last week and later counter-proposals from Europe and Ukraine, according to the Reuters news agency.
The agreement gives the US de facto acknowledgment of Russian sovereignty over other occupied territories, including the entirety of the Luhansk region, and legal support of Russia’s unlawful annexation of Crimea.
By contrast, the Europeans and Ukrainians will only discuss what happens to seized Ukrainian land when a ceasefire has gone into effect.
Trump asserted during the Witkoff-Putin meeting that the negotiations were progressing well.
He told reporters in the United States, “They are meeting with Putin right now, as we speak, and we have going on a number of things, and I think in the end we are going to wind up with a lot of wonderful deals, including tariff negotiations and trade deals.”
He stated that he thought “we are fairly close” to a peace agreement and that his goal was to put an end to the fighting in Ukraine that was killing 5,000 Ukrainians and Russians per week.
With no Ukrainian official invited to participate in the negotiations in Moscow, Russia and Ukraine’s stances still appear to be very different.
Zelensky urged partners to put additional pressure on Russia in a social media post on Friday, criticizing it for not accepting a 30-day truce that the US had suggested on March 11.
“President Trump’s proposition for peace in the sky, sea, and frontline has been accepted by Ukraine for forty-five days,” he stated. “All of this is rejected by Russia. This cannot be settled without pressure. There must be pressure on Russia.
He claimed that Russia was permitted to purchase missiles from nations like North Korea, which it then utilized in a Wednesday devastating missile strike on Kyiv that claimed 12 lives.
“North Korea and its partners are able to produce such ballistic missiles because there is not enough pressure on them. Zelensky claimed that the majority of the at least 116 foreign-imported parts in the missile that killed the inhabitants of Kyiv were manufactured by US businesses.
“Vladimir STOP!” Trump said in a social media post after the strike on Kyiv, claiming he was “putting a lot of pressure” on all sides to halt the war.
But since then, Trump has accused Kyiv of inciting the conflict, saying to Time magazine: “I believe that the war began when they [Ukraine] began discussing joining NATO.
