US to hold talks with Putin on ending Ukraine war

Moscow: Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday for high-stakes talks on ending the war in Ukraine.

The meeting - preceded by days of frenzied diplomacy from Florida to Geneva to Abu Dhabi - comes as Washington said it was “very optimistic” about ending Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.

But Kyiv and its European allies worry that Witkoff, who has been criticised for his dealings with the Kremlin, will yet cede ground to Moscow.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Ireland on Tuesday, shoring up European support, with the US-Russia meeting coming at a critical point for Kyiv.

Russian forces have advanced fast in November in eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv has been rocked by graft scandals that ended with the resignation of its top negotiator - Zelensky’s right-hand man.

Moscow has also stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, with Zelensky accusing the Kremlin of trying to “break” his country.

In Ireland, Zelensky was briefed by Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov returning from Florida, who said “significant progress” was achieved in US talks but that more work was needed on “challenging” issues.

Zelensky has said he still expects to discuss key issues with the US president, including on territory, security guarantees and Ukraine’s reconstruction.

On Tuesday he said Moscow’s real motivation for the US talks was to ease Western sanctions, rather than pursue peace.

Putin has demanded that Kyiv surrender territory Moscow claims as its own for any deal to be possible.

The diplomatic push comes as Kyiv said that fighting was ongoing in Pokrovsk, the eastern Ukrainian town that Moscow has tried to seize for months - despite Moscow claiming one day earlier that it had seized the town and planted a flag in its centre.

The fall of Pokrovsk would be a symbolic win for Moscow, which calls the city by its Soviet name Krasnoarmeysk. On the eve of the Witkoff meeting, Putin put on military attire as his commanders told him it had been taken.

“We all understand just how important” the capture is, Putin said Monday.

Last week, he repeated that Moscow was intent on capturing the rest of the Donetsk region by force if Kyiv does not give up land that it controls.

‘Serious pressure’

Putin ordered the full-scale military assault on Ukraine in February 2022 - calling it a “special military operation”.

Kyiv and its European allies say the war is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.

Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed since the war began, while millions of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes.

Europe has worried that Washington - which has backed Kyiv with funding and weapons - and Moscow will strike a deal over its head or force Ukraine into making unfair concessions.

“I am afraid that, you know, all the pressure will be put on the weaker side, because that is the easier way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned Monday.

An original 28-point US plan last month hewed so closely to Moscow’s demands that it prompted accusations that Russia was involved in drafting it - which Washington denied.

Bloomberg had last month reported that Witkoff had helped coach Russian officials on how Putin should speak to Trump.

Much of the diplomacy in recent days has been aimed at giving greater weight to Ukraine’s interests in any deal.

French leader Emmanuel Macron has said the coming days could be “decisive” for Kyiv and for Europe.

The talks came after Russia escalated its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine throughout November, according to an AFP analysis.

Moscow launched a total of 5,660 missiles and long-range drones at Ukraine last month, daily reports published by Kyiv’s air force showed, marking a two percent increase over the previous month.

“This is serious pressure, not only psychological but also physical pressure on our population,” Zelensky has said.