Territory proves stumbling block but efforts for breakthrough will continue 

MOSCOW — High-stakes Russia-United States talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine failed to yield a breakthrough on Dec 2, as the Kremlin said “no compromise” had been found yet on the key question of territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin, after earlier signaling that his forces were ready to fight on to achieve Russia’s initial goals.

The meeting was deemed a crucial moment for Ukraine following days of frantic diplomacy.

At the heart of it is a US plan to bring peace, which has since been revised under pressure from Kyiv and its European backers.

On territorial issues, “so far, we haven’t found a compromise, but some American solutions can be discussed”, top Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said after the Moscow meeting.

“Some proposed formulations do not fit us, and work will continue,” he added.

On Dec 3, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin accepted some US proposals and rejected others but noted that Russia was ready to meet US negotiators as many times as it takes to reach an agreement.

“A direct exchange of views took place yesterday for the first time,” Peskov said. “Some things were accepted, some things were marked as unacceptable — this is a normal working process of finding a compromise.”

He said Russia was grateful to Trump for his efforts but that the Kremlin would not be giving a running commentary on discussions with the US as publicity was unlikely to be constructive.

“Work is currently being carried out at a working expert level,” he said. “It is at the expert level that certain results should be achieved that will then become the basis for contacts at the highest level.”

Trump said progress on ending the conflict would not be easy.

“Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess,” he said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said on Dec 1 that any plan must end the conflict for good, and not just lead to a pause in the fighting that began in February 2022.

In a social media post, Zelensky said “there will be no simple solutions”.

Kushner and Witkoff presented Putin with a new version of the US plan, which has been hammered out after the initial version raised fears in Kyiv and elsewhere in Europe that it made too many concessions to Moscow.

In a social media post, Zelensky said “the most difficult questions are about territories, about frozen (Russian) assets … And about security guarantees”.