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Trump envoy Steve Witkoff has left Moscow after talks failed to achieve a significant breakthrough
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Five-hour talks were held between Vladimir Putin and senior Trump officials in the Kremlin on Tuesday evening, to discuss a new 20-point peace plan announced by Volodymyr Zelensky hours earlier.
“Productive”, was how talks were described by Moscow envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who was joined by the Russian president, Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.
But Ushakov said the two sides are no closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine, noting that they failed to reach any compromise on territorial disputes.
The chances of a comprehensive Russian agreement to Mr Zelensky’s new 20-point plan, agreed between the US and Ukraine in the past few days, was already understood to be very low. It has not been confirmed whether the US-Ukrainian plan was put to the Russians.
What the plan involves is not clear, but the Ukrainian president said that the 28-point roadmap proposed by the US last month – widely viewed in Europe as a capitulation for Ukraine – had been reworked into a new agreement.
“Some things still need to be worked out,” he told reporters on a visit to Dublin, adding that this marked “one of the most challenging and yet optimistic moments at the same time” for peace in Ukraine.
A Russian-flagged tanker carrying sunflower oil has reportedly been attacked off the Turkish coast, though its 13 crew members are unharmed, Turkey‘s maritime authority confirmed on Tuesday.
The vessel, MIDVOLGA-2, reported the incident 80 miles (130 km) from the Turkish coastline.
It did not request assistance, proceeding instead towards Turkey’s Sinop port, the Maritime Affairs Directorate stated on X. Broadcaster NTV suggested the attack involved a kamikaze drone.
Volodymyr Zelensky is in Dublin, where throughout the day he has been commenting on peace efforts with the US and Russia.
Before talks concluded in the Kremlin, the Ukrainian president said he had some optimism around peace efforts due to the speed of the process and the United States’ interest in finding a solution.
“A little bit optimism was in my words because of some speed of negotiations, and from the American side, their interest in it.
“It showed that America is not withdrawing now from any kind of diplomatic way of dialogue and it is good,” Mr Zelensky told an event during a visit to Dublin.
Nato has said that Ukrainian forces have ben “virtually encircled” in Myrnohrad and are relying on drones for supplies.
Russian troops now control more than 95 per cent of the city of Pokrovsk, a senior Nato official told European Pravda.
“Myrnohrad is now virtually fully encircled,” the official said.
“There is a narrow corridor through which the Ukrainians can withdraw certain forces, but it is a very narrow corridor, itself under hostile fire control. Overall, this is an encirclement, though not yet a complete encirclement.
Discussing Pokrovsk, the official said: “Ukrainian forces are still conducting defensive actions inside the city, but as supply routes have been almost completely cut, Ukrainian troops are dependent on resupply by drones, which is becoming increasingly difficult.”
“Russians control over 95% of the city… There are only isolated pockets where Ukrainian forces continue to resist.”
Italy’s government is set to delay the approval of a decree that would allow Rome to prolong military supplies to Ukraine into next year, Reuters is reporting citing sources.
The hold-up comes amid tensions within Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition government over support for Ukraine against Russia’s full-scale invasion, now approaching its fourth anniversary.
Ms Meloni has pledged to help Ukraine resist Russian aggression to the end, but her deputy Matteo Salvini, leader of the League party, has questioned the rationale for continued support.
The decree for Ukraine aid was on the agenda of a meeting on Wednesday set to prepare the next day’s cabinet, but was taken off because the agenda was already too full, the sources said, asking not to be named.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Italy’s government has sent 12 packages of military aid to Ukraine, including the SAMP/T air defence system, as authorised by the decree system.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov is the next to respond to the nearly-five-hour talks in the Kremlin, which have just concluded.
He said that the two sides are no closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine, adding that there is much work to be done.
Ushakov described the talks as constructive but noted that the sides failed to reach a compromise on one of the most difficult issues – territorial disputes.
Several options for a settlement were discussed, he added.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev has been the first official to respond following the conclusion of a high-level round table involving Vladimir Putin and Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
In a short message on X, paired with two photos from earlier in the day, Mr Dmitriev said: “Productive”.
We’ll bring you any further lines from those involved in the talks.
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s meeting with US president Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin has concluded, the Kremlin press service said.
The talks on a possible way to end the deadliest European conflict since World War Two stretched for nearly five hours.
State news agency RIA said that Witkoff went to the US embassy in Moscow after the talks.
Whether by accident or design, Vladimir Putin has a useful idiot running America. International diplomacy has been turned on its head, enemies made friends, allies threatened, international laws defoliated.
Russian strategic policy, known as the Gerasimov doctrine, argues that chaos in the ranks of the enemy is victory and a path to greatness. By that standard Putin, should be stringing up bunting in the Kremlin.
He has achieved unimagined strategic effect by manipulating the Trump administration, which has contorted itself in its efforts to force a Russian victory on Ukraine and against Europe.
Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:
Before the media cameras were removed from the Kremlin’s meeting room, were were given a few glimpses of what was said between the two sides.
A smiling Putin told Witkoff he was glad to see him and asked him about his and Kushner’s walk around Moscow, which included a stroll across Red Square past the mausoleum of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin to the towers of the Kremlin.
“It is a magnificent city,” Witkoff told Putin, along with foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Putin investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Both sides had interpreters.
The Kremlin talks were ongoing late into the Moscow night after more than three hours.
Meanwhile in Washington, Trump spoke briefly on the talks at a drawn-out cabinet meeting.
“Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled,” he said. “Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess.”
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