US and Russia fail to find compromise on peace plan for Ukraine at talks in Moscow

Russian and US delegations have failed to reach a compromise on a peace plan for Ukraine. Following a five-hour meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump's envoys, Moscow pointed to disagreements on a number of issues.

"No compromise option has been found yet," Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said after the talks. According to him, "some American developments look more or less acceptable," but they need to be discussed.

"Some of the wording that has been proposed to us does not suit us. That is, the work will continue," he said. According to Ushakov, a possible meeting between Trump and Putin will depend on what progress will be made.

The talks in the Kremlin on December 2 lasted almost five hours. Putin, his aide Yury Ushakov and special envoy Kirill Dmitriev participated in the talks from the Russian side. The United States was represented by special envoy to the U.S. president Steven Whitkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

From Moscow, Whitkoff and Kushner will travel to Europe, where they will meet Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and brief him on the content of their conversation with Putin, Axios reported, citing sources.

The NBC News TV channel quoted an unnamed Russian official as saying that there are "three pillars" on which Moscow does not intend to make concessions. According to the source, Russia insists on handing over the entire territory of Donbas to its control, limiting the number of Ukrainian armed forces and recognizing the annexed territories as part of Russia by the USA and Xi. The TV channel notes that the above points are simultaneously "red lines" for the Ukrainian leadership as well. The Kremlin is ready to "show flexibility" on "some minor issues", such as frozen Russian assets, NBC News added.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a December 2 interview with Fox News that the main point of disagreement remains the territory of Donbass, which is under Kiev's control. "And what we've been trying to do - and I think we've made some progress - is to figure out what the Ukrainians could agree to that would provide them security guarantees for the future," Rubio said. He said the U.S. hopes that a compromise "will allow them not only to rebuild their economy, but to prosper as a country."

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor