Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Swipe for next article
Trump’s special envoy will speak to Russian president in renewed diplomatic effort to end war but both sides remain far from an agreement
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Four-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 a 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.
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.
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.”
Vladimir Putin, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Kirill Dmitriev and Yuri Ushakov sit round a table.
This isn’t the start of a bad joke: it’s what is going on right now in the Kremlin, where top US officials are seeking agreement from Moscow for a peace deal in Ukraine.
They are sitting around a table which was the subject of one of the most famous photos of 2022, when French president Emmanuel Macron tried to convince Putin to halt his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The almost comical distance between the two presidents was a reflection of the political distance between Russia and Europe. Some speculate Putin uses the table to project an image of power.
The white-topped, oval beech table was reportedly installed in the Kremlin in the late 1990s while Boris Yeltsin was president. It is reportedly 6 metres long, made from a single sheet of beech wood and supported on three wooden stands.
Following several fruitless meetings around the meeting table between Putin and high-level western officials since 2022, it remains to be seen whether today’s talks will be a different story.
19 November: Trump’s 28-point plan
A report in US outlet Axios claimed that Steve Witkoff had developed a 28-point draft plan with Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
All three are currently sat around Vladimir Putin’s meeting table in the Kremlin.
But Europe and Kyiv were dismayed, stating that the plan was heavily weighted in favour of Russian demands.
The same day, US Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll arrived in Ukraine to discuss the peace process with Ukrainian officials.
23 November: The European counter-proposal
Europe issues a counter-proposal following a similar structure to the 28-point plan.
It contains, however, major changes, and does not commit to Ukraine ceding the Donbas to Russia, as the original plan did.
24-25 November: Abu Dhabi
Meetings are held in Abu Dhabi, between Driscoll and a Russian delegation to discuss the revised plan.
30 November: Ukraine-US talks
Kyiv officials head to Florida where they meet with secretary of state Marco Rubio, and envoys Kushner and Witkoff to discuss revisions to the peace plan.
Rubio says the sides are making “progress”.
2 December: Zelensky’s 20-point plan
Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky reveals that the US and Ukraine have agreed on a new 20-point peace deal.
The Ukrainian president said that the original 28-point roadmap proposed by the US last month had been reworked into a new agreement following discussions between officials. The exact details remain unclear.
Witkoff and Kushner head to Moscow, where they lock into talks over the new peace deal with Putin.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in