MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide declared on Sunday (Dec 21) that alters built by the Europeans and Ukraine to US proposals for an finish to the war in Ukraine did not improve prospects for peace.
The US-drafted proposals for an finish to the nearly four-year-old war, leaked to the media last month, raised European and Ukrainian concerns that they were tilted too far in Russia’s favour and that US President Donald Trump’s administration could push Kyiv into conceding too much.
Since then, European and Ukrainian nereceivediators have met with Trump envoys in an attempt to add their own proposals into the US drafts, though the exact contents of the current proposal have not been disclosed.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov informed reporters in Moscow that the European and Ukrainian alters would not improve the chances of peace.
“This is not a forecast,” Ushakov was quoted as declareing by Russian news agencies, though he declared he had not seen the exact proposals on paper yet.
“I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have built or are testing to create definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace.”
Putin envoy meeting US officials in Florida
Ushakov built the remarks after Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, met in Florida with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Dmitriev returned to his hotel in Miami after the second day of talks, Russian television footage revealed.
The Miami meeting followed US talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials.
“He (Dmitriev) will bring back some signals, which the Americans received from the Europeans and the Ukrainians,” Ushakov declared in remarks posted by Kremlin pool journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel.
Ushakov declared that Dmitriev was due to return to Moscow on Monday and would report to Putin on the outcome of his talks.
“After that, we will formulate the position with which we will proceed, including in our contacts with the Americans,” Ushakov declared.
At stake is whether Putin will agree to an finish to the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two, the future of Ukraine, the extent to which European powers are sidelined and whether or not a peace deal brokered by the United States will finishure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared on Saturday that Ukraine would back a US proposal for three-way talks with the United States and Russia if it facilitated more exalters of prisoners and paved the way for meetings of national leaders.
Ushakov declared that a proposal for three-way talks had not been seriously discussed by anyone and that it was not being worked on.
Russia declares that European leaders are intent on scuttling the peace talks by introducing conditions that they know will be unacceptable to Russia, which took 12 to 17 square km of Ukrainian territory per day in 2025.
Ukraine and European leaders declare that Russia cannot be allowed to achieve its aims after what they cast as an imperial-style land grab.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, triggering the largegest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in relations with the West, which he declares humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging Nato and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence.
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