THE WASHINGTON POST: Putin maintains hard line in talks as Trump says Moscow is open to a deal

Russian President Vladimir Putin said parts of the US peace plan were unacceptable and that Russia would take Ukrainian land through military force or other means in an interview that aired Thursday, as Moscow sticks to its demand that Kyiv surrender territory it still holds after nearly four years of fighting.

Excerpts from the interview with India Today, which coincided with Putin’s arrival in India on Thursday, indicated that Moscow is holding a hard line in talks on the resolution of the war despite optimistic pronouncements from Washington.

President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that he was unsure what was next in the Ukrainian peace process, even as he described Tuesday’s talks in Moscow between Putin and his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner as “reasonably good.”

“What comes out of that meeting I can’t tell you because it does take two to tango,” Mr Trump said, adding that Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner believed Mr Putin wanted a deal.

Mr Putin said that he wanted to end the war - but characterized it not as Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, but a war against Russia by the West.

“Russia wants to end the war that the West launched against it through Ukraine,” he said. Throughout the war, Mr Putin has blamed Ukraine and the West for the invasion, and he has lately sharpened his rhetoric against Europe while flattering Mr Trump.

The next phase of the talks will come later Thursday with the arrival of Rustem Umerov, head of the Ukrainian negotiating team, to Miami where he will be meeting with Mr Kushner and Mr Witkoff.

What is not clear, however, is whether Ukraine and Russia are talking about the same versions of the US peace proposal.

After talks late last month between Ukraine and US officials, the original 28-point plan leaked and was widely criticized as pro-Russian. It was then reduced to 19 points, with many sections that were unacceptable to Ukraine removed or set aside to be negotiated between the leaders.

According to Russian state media, however, Mr Putin said in the interview that the US proposal consisted of 28 points (or 27, according to another Russian news agency) and was divided into four documents and based on agreements reached with Mr Trump in August when the two met in Alaska.

That raises questions of whether Mr Putin and Russian officials were talking about the proposal that included the amendments offered by the Ukrainians in the Geneva negotiations on November 23.

Mr Putin said in the interview that while Russia did not accept some points of the US peace proposals on Ukraine, the negotiations are complex work. He added that it was useful to discuss every point of the plan with Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner.

“The meeting was useful. This meeting was necessary,” Mr Putin said. “We went through each point of the peace proposals, which is why the meeting took so long. In some cases, we said that yes, we could discuss this, but we could not agree to that.”

Mr Putin said Russia would take the Ukrainian territory it claims either by military force or other means, Tass reported.

Indicating that Russia continues to insist Ukraine must never join NATO, Mr Putin said that “we are not demanding anything special for ourselves. We rely on the general principle that the security of one state cannot be ensured at the expense of the security of another.”

After the talks, Russian officials said no compromises had been found - a sign, according to analysts, that Russia has not significantly shifted its conditions to end the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Wednesday that pressure must be increased on Russia and that Ukraine’s interests must be respected for the diplomacy to succeed.

“A just peace is only possible if Ukraine’s interests are fully respected,” he said. “Today, the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war, and the current diplomatic activity must be reinforced with pressure on Russia. Everything depends on this combination - constructive diplomacy paired with pressure on the aggressor. Both components work in the service of peace.”

He added that there was “constant communication” between Ukraine and its partners over the peace effort.

Before Tuesday’s meeting, Mr Putin sought to minimize Europe’s role in peace discussions, even as a deal impinges directly on European security, insisting that Europeans had “excluded themselves” from the process because they wanted to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia “and, apparently, still live in this illusion.”

He described the Europeans as “on the side of war” and said they were hindering peace by continually inserting proposals that were “completely unacceptable to Russia.”

A Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov, said Wednesday that Russia insisted on international recognition of a future peace agreement on territory and other issues. He said the United States was ready to secure a peace agreement that “meets Russia’s interests.”

Mr Putin also told Indian television that Russia does not want to return to the Group of Seven nations of advanced economies that consists of the US, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan. Russia was expelled from what was then the Group of Eight after its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.

Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.

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