- The Kremlin said the “territorial issue” remains unresolved after President Vladimir Putin held talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the latest peace plan for ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.
- Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said there’s “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” to the war until Russia’s demands for territory in Ukraine are accepted.
- Talks between US, Russian and Ukrainian representatives started in the United Arab Emirates and were expected to continue into Saturday, with discussions to include the question of Donbas and the modalities of a potential peace deal. The Kremlin said the “territorial issue” remains unresolved after President Vladimir Putin held late-night talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the latest peace plan for ending Russia’s war on Ukraine. There’s “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” to the war until Russia’s demands for territory in Ukraine are accepted, Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said in an audio recording on Telegram early Friday. That’s even as he characterized the almost four hours of negotiations in the Kremlin as “exceptionally substantive, constructive.” Talks between US, Russian and Ukrainian representatives got started in the United Arab Emirates on Friday and were expected to continue into Saturday, Tass reported, citing the UAE’s Foreign Ministry. Separately, Witkoff and Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, will discuss bilateral Russia-US economic matters in Abu Dhabi. This was Witkoff’s seventh visit to Putin in the past year as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a peace deal, so far without success. US and Ukrainian officials have said they’ve made significant progress on a 20-point plan to end the Russian full-scale invasion that’s lasted almost four years and spiraled into Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Still, Kyiv and Moscow remain at an impasse on key points including Putin’s demands for parts of Ukraine that remain under Kyiv’s control in its eastern Donbas territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia is insisting on securing what it calls the “Anchorage understandings” reached at Putin’s August summit with Trump in Alaska. That would require Ukraine to turn over the whole of eastern Donetsk, while fighting would be frozen along the current lines of contact in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine rejects demands to withdraw its forces from heavily fortified areas of Donetsk that Putin’s military has failed to occupy in fighting that stretches back to 2014. US proposals have suggested turning the unoccupied area into a de-militarized or free economic zone under special administration. An agreement on postwar security guarantees for Ukraine “is ready for signing,” Zelenskiy said Friday. “This document will be the basis for more documents. But we have got the core, highway agreement on the security guarantees.”
Even as peace negotiations go on, Putin has stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s power sector in freezing winter temperatures, leaving millions of people without heating and water. Ukraine has also struck Russian energy infrastructure causing disruptions. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned residents Friday that “the situation is extremely difficult” and urged them to store water, food and any needed medications at home because of the likelihood of further Russian attacks. More than 1,900 apartment buildings are still without heating following Tuesday’s strikes, he said. A visibly angry Zelenskiy tore into Europe for its apparent lack of willingness to stop Putin during a speech in Davos on Thursday.
“Europe loves to discuss the future but avoids taking action today,” he told the audience. “Where is the line of leaders who are ready to act?”