Meeting between Putin and US envoy Witkoff on war in Ukraine ends

Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff has concluded after talks that stretched nearly four hours, the Kremlin said in a statement early Friday.

Witkoff was accompanied by US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as Washington pushes a plan to end the Ukraine war.

Putin appeared alongside his foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, and his envoy for international economic affairs, Kirill Dmitriev.

What Kremlin told US team

A long-term settlement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is impossible without resolving territorial disputes, Russian President Vladimir Putin has told US negotiators, according to a senior Kremlin official.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said Friday that Putin made clear during talks with American representatives that territorial issues remain the central obstacle to any durable peace agreement.

“The main thing is that during these negotiations between our President and the Americans, it was once again stated that without resolving the territorial issue according to the formula agreed upon in Anchorage, one should not count on achieving a long-term settlement,” Ushakov told reporters.

The talks, held recently in Moscow between Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff, alongside Jared Kushner, lasted about four hours.

Ushakov described the discussions as “exceptionally substantive, constructive, and, I would say, extremely frank and confidential.”

Earlier this week, Witkoff suggested that negotiations were close to a breakthrough. Speaking at an event in Davos on Thursday, just hours before departing for Moscow, he said peace talks had been narrowed “down to one issue.”

'Down to one issue'

“I think we’ve got it down to one issue, and we have discussed iterations of that issue, and that means it’s solvable,” Witkoff said.

A European official later confirmed to CNN that the remaining issue Witkoff referred to was territory.

According to Ushakov, Putin told the US delegation that Russia was “sincerely interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic methods.”

However, he added that until an agreement is reached, Moscow will continue to pursue its objectives militarily.

“Russia will continue to act on the battlefield, where the Russian Armed Forces hold the strategic initiative,” Ushakov said.

The comments reference a high-profile summit hosted by US President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, last year, where Trump and Putin met for talks that ultimately ended without a breakthrough and with few details publicly disclosed.