By: Holly Ellyatt/CNBC
Translation: Telegrafi.com
Peace talks held on Tuesday between the US and Russia failed to make any progress, after Russian President Vladimir Putin, ahead of the discussions, doubled down on threats against Europe, saying that Russia is "ready" for war with the continent.
US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, had traveled to Moscow to hold talks with Putin and his closest aides about a peace plan, drawn up with the aim of ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
The talks lasted five hours, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the discussions, noting that the meeting focused on a peace plan drafted by the US and was "very useful, constructive and very informative," but that there was still work to be done.
“We agreed on some points ... while others were criticized, and the president [Putin] did not hide our critical, even negative, attitude towards a number of proposals. But the most important thing is that we had a very useful discussion,” Ushakov said, in comments translated by NBC News.
It is not clear which peace plan was presented to the Russians, as a preliminary 28-point plan, secretly drafted by the US and Russia, was presented to Ukraine several weeks ago.
Kiev and its European allies hastily revised that plan, reducing it to 19 proposals, with Ukrainian officials traveling to Florida last weekend for more talks on those proposals.
Russia and Ukraine are far apart on key elements of a framework peace agreement, with Moscow demanding that Kiev hand over partially occupied territory in the country's east and disagreements over Western-backed security guarantees for Ukraine.
Putin's aide, Ushakov, said on Tuesday that the two sides had discussed a 27-point plan and had received more documents from the American side, although he did not provide details about their content. He added that Russia and the United States had agreed not to disclose details of the talks.
The talks in Moscow came after Putin launched a scathing attack on Europe, saying alternative peace proposals from it were "absolutely unacceptable" to Russia and that the region's leadership "has no peace agenda."
"We are not going to war with Europe; I have said it a hundred times. But if Europe suddenly wants to fight with us and starts first, we are ready now," Putin told reporters, ahead of his meeting with Witkoff and Kushner.
European officials have expressed concern in recent weeks that they, and Ukraine, were excluded from initial talks between the US and Russia, which led to a preliminary peace plan that was seen as too favorable to Russia.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday that "this week could be decisive for diplomacy. It is clear that Russia does not want peace, and that is why we must make Ukraine as strong as possible."
Europe will have been watching Tuesday's talks in Russia closely. There are concerns that Trump, who has at times had warmer relations with Putin than with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, could support Russian peace proposals with the aim of ending the war as quickly as possible.
Wanting to appear optimistic about the possibility of peace, Zelenskyy told Irish lawmakers on Tuesday that Ukraine was "closer to peace than ever before" and that there was a "real chance" of an agreement after talks with Washington.
Geopolitical experts say the Kremlin is willing to prolong the peace process as long as possible, with Russia claiming it has a battlefield advantage and can extract major concessions from Ukraine in the peace process.
Michael Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was in Putin's interest "to keep the process going, to have a long process of diplomatic engagement."
"He wants to open a broader discussion about Russia's reintegration with the West and relations with the United States, trade deals with the United States, and drag out that process while he continues to bomb Ukraine's energy infrastructure and make gradual progress on the ground," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday.
Amos Hochstein, managing partner of TWG Global and former senior presidential adviser in the Biden administration, agreed that Russia will likely delay reaching an agreement.
"I think it's difficult to reach an agreement point where a large territory should be given to Russia by the Ukrainians, in exchange for security guarantees that are somewhat vague and weak, and that's difficult for the Ukrainians who have fought so hard over these years to accept," he said.
"The problem is that maybe the Ukrainians can compromise on some of these issues, but any concessions they would get from the US in this deal would be difficult for the Russians to accept [because] they depend on war, they want to win, but they also have a war economy."
"The Russians are in no hurry for a deal here," he added. /Telegraph/
