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President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a marathon round of Ukraine peace talks Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin — though they ended with a statement from the Kremlin that parts of the proposal remain “unacceptable.”

The meeting began in Moscow around 7:30 p.m. local time, and lasted more than five hours — ending with no agreement.


  Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin on Dec. 2, 2025. Kristina Kormilitsyna/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin on Dec. 2, 2025. Kristina Kormilitsyna/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

  Witkoff and Kushner seen in Moscow ahead of the meeting with Putin. ZUMAPRESS.com Witkoff and Kushner seen in Moscow ahead of the meeting with Putin. ZUMAPRESS.com

“While a compromise [peace plan for Ukraine] has not yet been found, some American proposals [for a peace settlement] appear more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed,” Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov told Russian media.

“Some of the formulations we were offered are unacceptable. Therefore, the work will continue.”

Just ahead of the talks, Putin delivered a chilling warning to Europe on Tuesday, accusing EU leaders of sabotaging peace talks with the US.

“We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” Putin said.

The Moscow strongman has criticized the input as direct interference from Europe, stating that “European demands are not acceptable to Russia.”

Witkoff, 68, has been to the Kremlin for similar peace talks numerous times, but Tuesday it was the first time he was joined by Trump’s son-in-law — who helped the envoy cement the Gaza peace deal.

The pair also brought an American translator with them for the discussion, which took place two days after talks between American and Ukrainian delegations in South Florida.

Putin, 73, was accompanied at the evening talks by foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, who accompanied Witkoff and Kushner on a stroll through central Moscow after a pre-meeting dinner.


  Putin at the talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. POOL/AFP via Getty Images Putin at the talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

“Productive,” Dmitriev wrote in a post to X around 1 a.m. local time including photos taken of himself and the US negotiators before the talks began.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was notably missing from the meeting as he met elsewhere in the Kremlin with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for a round of high-level “strategic security and military cooperation” talks, according to Russian and Chinese media.


  Jared Kushner with Steve Witkoff. POOL/AFP via Getty Images Jared Kushner with Steve Witkoff. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Ahead of the sitdown, Witkoff and Kushner took a “beautiful walk” with Kremlin officials through Moscow’s famed red square, with the former later telling Putin that the Russian capital was a “magnificent city.”

Putin came to the meeting bashing Europeans who he alleged wanted to want to “put forward demands that are absolutely unacceptable for Russia,” going so far as to say his country would be “ready right away” to wage war on Europe.

“If Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, a situation may quickly arise in which there will be no one left for us to negotiate with,” he told reporters before heading into the negotiating room.

However, the US has largely kept Europe out of the latest round of peace talks, holding deliberations only with Ukrainian and Russian officials.


  Putin, with his aides, during talks with the US on a peace agreement on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. POOL/AFP via Getty Images Putin, with his aides, during talks with the US on a peace agreement on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Before the meeting, Putin addressed an investment forum and accused America’s European allies of being “on the side of the war” and “blocking the entire peace process.”

The Kremlin tyrant also accused Europe of proposing changes to the plan purposely “to blame Russia for the collapse of this peace process.”

Russia has flown drones into European nations — such as Poland and Moldova — neighboring Ukraine multiple times since September. Just last week, the Kremlin launched its deepest-yet breach into Romania, prompting NATO to scramble jets.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued his tour of European nations Tuesday, visiting Ireland one day after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who said Monday that the two leaders had spoken by phone with Witkoff ahead of the Putin meeting.


  Putin during the talks with the US on peace. via REUTERS Putin during the talks with the US on peace. via REUTERS

“They want to report right after that meeting to us, specifically,” Zelensky said of the American envoys during a press conference alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin. “The future and the next steps depend on these signals. Such steps will change throughout today, even hour by hour, I believe.”

“If the signals show fair play with our partners, we then might meet very soon, meet with the American delegation,” he added.

“There is a lot of dialogue, but we need results. Our people are dying every day,” Zelensky went on. “I am ready … to meet with President Trump. It all depends on today’s talks.”

The US’ revised 19-point plan hammered out with Ukraine in Geneva last week holds that issues related to territory will be left to Trump and Zelensky to discuss.

However, Trump has said he would not meet with the Ukrainian or Russian presidents until a deal is imminent.

Ukrainian officials are discussing a possible visit by Witkoff to meet with Zelensky on his way back to the US from the Moscow meeting, according to two sources familiar.


  Steve Witkoff in Moscow on April 25, 2025. AP Steve Witkoff in Moscow on April 25, 2025. AP

“There will be no simple solutions to ending this war. We understand what is happening. We understand who we are dealing with,” Zelensky said in a post to X Tuesday afternoon. “The issue is not the difficulty of making decisions; I am capable of making them.”

“What matters is that everything is fair and transparent. That there are no games played behind Ukraine’s back. That nothing is decided without Ukraine – about us, about our future,” he added.

Zelensky said he also met earlier Tuesday with the Ukrainian delegation that had just returned from Florida — claiming that the parties had “finalized” a 19-point peace plan drafted during talks earlier last month, without elaborating.

“The most sensitive things and the most difficult questions are about territories, about frozen assets … and about security guarantees,” Zelensky said in his X post. “We count on strong security guarantees from the United States and Europe, and some other leaders.”


  Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow on Dec. 2, 2025. ZUMAPRESS.com Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow on Dec. 2, 2025. ZUMAPRESS.com

“This is one of the Coalition of the Willing topics,” he said of the group of European nations taking the lead on organizing security guarantees. “We work on it. I think these three topics are the most sensitive and important. Our teams will continue to work on them.”

That framework was pared down from a 28-point plan that would have seen Kyiv agree to several controversial provisions, such as US recognition of some Ukrainian territory as Russian — including land Moscow has been unable to occupy over 11 years of war.

The new plan walked back that point and left territorial matters for Trump and Zelensky to work out, with the latter telling reporters Monday that security guarantees for postwar Ukraine must be part of that discussion.

“Ukraine must know exactly when the war ends, then there will be security guarantees for the entire territory of Ukraine so that the invasion does not start again,” Zelensky said.

“This is the main thing and there can be no other interpretations, it is connected precisely with this.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also joined the Sunday talks, acknowledged to reporters that “much work remains” to secure an end to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War.

Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Russia hours after the Kremlin claimed its forces had captured the logistical hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine after 21 months of trying.

Zelensky, however, told reporters in Paris that fighting was still ongoing in the city that was formerly home to 60,000 people.

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