Russian president Vladimir Putin has met White House envoys in the Kremlin to discuss a US push to end the war in Ukraine, after warning that his country was ready to fight Europe “right now” if necessary and accusing it of blocking peace efforts.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law, began talks with Mr Putin on Tuesday evening to discover Russia’s position on proposals for a framework peace plan that US and Ukrainian officials discussed last weekend in Miami.
Shortly before the US envoys arrived at the Kremlin, Mr Putin made clear that Moscow rejected European efforts to make an initial 28-point US proposal – which Ukraine and many European capitals saw as little more than a list of Russia’s maximalist demands – more amenable to Kyiv.
“Even when they try to make some changes to Trump’s proposals, we see clearly that all these changes are aimed at only one thing – blocking the entire peace process, putting forward demands that are absolutely unacceptable for Russia ... They have no peace agenda – they are on the side of war,” Mr Putin said.
READ MORE
The European counterproposals to the original US plan removed key Russian demands on the permanent occupation of swathes of Ukrainian territory, a ban on Ukraine ever joining Nato and limits on the size of Kyiv’s military. It also set aside several points concerning future relations between Russia and Nato.
“The Europeans won’t keep quiet. They are offended that they’ve been sidelined from negotiations. But I want to point out that no one sidelined them – they sidelined themselves,” Mr Putin said, accusing European leaders of “cutting ties with Russia”.
“Why did they do this? Because they adopted the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia and, apparently, they still live in these illusions ... They mistook wishful thinking for reality at the time. But they can’t and won’t admit it to themselves.”
In some of his most aggressive comments aimed at Europe, Mr Putin added: “We don’t intend to fight with Europe, I’ve said that a hundred times. But if Europe suddenly decides to fight and starts it – then we are ready right now.”
Mr Trump’s return to the White House in January gave Russia high hopes of securing a favourable end to its invasion of Ukraine, due to his many expressions of admiration for Mr Putin and long-standing ambition of overseeing a rapprochement between the US and Russia.
Each time Mr Trump’s efforts to kick-start peace negotiations failed earlier this year – with Mr Putin refusing to call a ceasefire or hold talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy – Russia blamed Kyiv and European capitals for the impasse.
Russia negotiator Kirill Dmitriev, a former Wall Steet banker, also arrived at the Kremlin to take part in the talks after strolling around central Moscow with Mr Kushner, a businessman, and Mr Witkoff, a property developer and long-time friend of Mr Trump.
A photograph published by Russian state media when the meeting began showed that senior Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov was also at the table, beside Mr Putin.
The Kremlin says it will continue with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine until it has achieved its goal of “demilitarising” the pro-western democracy and preventing it from ever joining Nato, or until its demands are met through a diplomatic settlement.
Ukraine used naval drones last week to hit two tankers in the Black Sea belonging to the so-called shadow fleet that Russia uses to evade sanctions on its oil industry.
Mr Putin said Russia could take “countermeasures against countries that help Ukraine” or “cut Ukraine off from the sea” to stop what he called acts of “piracy”.
