President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia held talks for nearly five hours late Tuesday with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, negotiating with the two U.S. emissaries as Washington pushed for an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The negotiators discussed the substance of U.S. peace proposals but did not delve into the wording of any provisions, reach any specific compromises or agree to a new summit between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told journalists after the marathon talks concluded.
“The discussion was very useful, constructive and very substantive and lasted for not five minutes but five hours,” Mr. Ushakov said.
During the talks, Mr. Putin went through the U.S. proposals that the Kremlin had received in four documents ahead of the meeting, Mr. Ushakov said.
“We could agree on some things, and the president confirmed this to his interlocutors,” Mr. Ushakov said. “Other things provoked criticism, and the president also made no secret of our critical and even negative attitude toward a number of proposals. But the main thing is that a very useful discussion took place.”
A 28-point U.S. peace plan revealed last month drew pushback from Ukraine and Europe for being weighted toward the Kremlin. Some provisions have been softened, American officials said, after Ukrainian and European officials weighed in on the plan.
In addition to Mr. Ushakov, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, joined Mr. Putin during the talks on Tuesday, which stretched past midnight local time at the Kremlin.
Part of the discussion revolved around the question of territory, and Mr. Ushakov said some of the American formulations “look more or less acceptable but need to be discussed.” Others that were proposed “don’t work for us,” he said, declining to go into details. Ukraine has rejected Russia’s demands that Kyiv hand over land in eastern Ukraine that it still controls.
“There is still a lot of work to be done, both by Washington and by Moscow,” Mr. Ushakov said, noting that the two sides had agreed to stay in contact to move the talks forward.
Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner decamped to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow after the meeting to report the results of the talks to Mr. Trump, the Kremlin aide said. Mr. Kushner does not have a formal role in the Trump administration, but played a role in brokering the cease-fire in Gaza.
Mr. Witkoff’s visit to Moscow, his sixth since January, took place two days after American and Ukrainian delegations met in Miami to continue negotiations over the potential peace plan. Both sides called those talks constructive but said more work was needed, without detailing the unresolved issues.
Ahead of the talks, Mr. Putin made a series of public appearances promoting Russia’s battlefield progress and economic resilience.
