Russia-US talks end with 'no compromise'

MOSCOW — High-stakes Russia-United States talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine failed to yield a breakthrough on Tuesday, as the Kremlin said "no compromise" had been found yet on the key question of territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin, after earlier signaling that his forces were ready to fight on to achieve Russia's initial goals.

The meeting is a crucial moment for Ukraine in what could be a fraught week following days of frantic diplomacy. At the heart of it is a US plan to bring peace, which has since been revised under pressure from Kyiv and its European backers.

On territorial issues, "so far, we haven't found a compromise, but some American solutions can be discussed", top Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said after the Moscow meeting.

"Some proposed formulations do not fit us, and work will continue," he added.

On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin accepted some US proposals and rejected others but that Russia was ready to meet US negotiators as many times as it took to reach an agreement.

"A direct exchange of views took place yesterday for the first time," Peskov said. "Some things were accepted, some things were marked as unacceptable — this is a normal working process of finding a compromise."

He said Russia was grateful to Trump for his efforts but that the Kremlin would not be giving a running commentary on discussions with the US as publicity was unlikely to be constructive.

"Work is currently being carried out at a working expert level," he said. "It is at the expert level that certain results should be achieved that will then become the basis for contacts at the highest level."

'Not easy'

Trump said progress on ending the conflict would not be easy.

"Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled," he said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. "Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that any plan must end the conflict for good, and not just lead to a pause in the fighting that began in February 2022.

In a social media post, Zelensky said "there will be no simple solutions".

"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 said.

Kushner and Witkoff were to present Putin with the new version of the US plan, which has been hammered out after the initial version raised fears in Kyiv and elsewhere in Europe that it made too many concessions to Moscow.

Ushakov said the initial US plan was broken down into four parts, which were discussed during the five-hour meeting at the Kremlin.

"There were some points we could agree on," he said, but "the president did not hide our critical, even negative, stance on a number of proposals".

In his social media post, Zelensky said "the most difficult questions are about territories, about frozen (Russian) assets ... And about security guarantees".

Still, the talks in Moscow were "useful", Ushakov said, and Russian and US positions did not become farther apart after it.

Agencies - Xinhua