Five hours of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. negotiators yielded no results on a possible peace deal in Ukraine, a Kremlin aide said Wednesday morning. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, sat down for high-level talks with Putin in the Kremlin on Tuesday, culminating a week of intense diplomacy as the Trump administration continues its efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
"The talks were very useful, constructive and very substantive, but a compromise option was not found. Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, although they need to be discussed. But some other points do not suit us. The work will continue," stressed Russian foreign policy adviser and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with Fox News that some progress has been made in US-Russia talks on Ukraine.
"What we've tried to do, and I think we've made some progress, is figure out what would ensure the security of Ukrainians in the future," he stressed, adding that the United States hopes the compromise will allow Ukrainians "not only to rebuild their economy, but also to thrive as a country."
Among the previous sticking points are the Kremlin's demands that Ukraine formally abandon its aspiration to join NATO and that Ukraine hand over territory in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine that has been annexed, but not yet occupied, by Russia.
Meanwhile, today, Witkoff and Kushner, according to the American media outlet Axios, are expected to meet with Zelensky in a "European location," but the exact location is unknown.