The Kremlin early yesterday said the “territorial issue” remained unresolved after Russian President Vladimir Putin held late-night talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the latest peace plan for ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.
There is “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” to the war until Russia’s demands for territory in Ukraine are accepted, said Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov.
That was even as he characterized the about four hours of negotiations in the Kremlin as “exceptionally substantive, constructive.”
Photo: AFP
Talks are to continue between US, Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the United Arab Emirates until today.
Separately, Witkoff and Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, would discuss bilateral Russia-US economic matters in Abu Dhabi.
That was Witkoff’s seventh visit to Putin in the past year as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a peace deal.
US and Ukrainian officials have said they have made significant progress on a 20-point plan to end the Russian invasion, but Kyiv and Moscow remain at an impasse on key points, including Putin’s demands for parts of Ukraine in its eastern Donbas territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“The question of Donbas is key,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. “It will be discussed, as well as the modalities — how the three sides see it — in Abu Dhabi.”
Russia is insisting on securing what it calls the “Anchorage understandings” reached at Putin’s August summit last year with Trump in Alaska. That would require Ukraine to turn over the whole of eastern Donetsk, while fighting would be frozen along the current lines of contact in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine rejects demands to withdraw its forces from heavily fortified areas of Donetsk that Putin’s military has failed to occupy in fighting that stretches back to 2014.
US proposals have suggested turning the unoccupied area into a demilitarized or free economic zone under special administration.
Russian Military Intelligence Director Igor Kostyukov is set to lead Moscow’s delegation to the trilateral working group in Abu Dhabi, Ushakov said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s delegation at the talks would be composed solely of military officials.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy said top officials including Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Office of the President head Kyrylo Budanov, would represent Ukraine.
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