President Vladimir Putin
Dmitry Peskov, Spokesperson, Kremlin has debunked the claim that President Vladimir Putin rejected US peace plan during a meeting with Steve Witkoff, special envoy to former President Donald Trump and Jared Kushner.
Peskov at a briefing held in Moscow said, “there was a direct exchange of opinions for the first time. Something was accepted; something was marked as unacceptable. This is a normal working process and a search for compromise.”
He, however, declined details of the meeting negotiations, affirming that, “there’s an understanding that the quieter surrounds these negotiations, the more productive they are. We’ll stick to this principle and we’re hoping that our American counterparts will, too.”
He said Russia remains ready to meet US negotiators as many times as necessary to reach an agreement.
He explained that the discussion follows a leak comment in recent weeks suggesting the US attempted to present a maximalist set of demands, derived from Russian positions, as their own “peace plan.”
The Kremlin said last week that while some US proposals were accepted, others were rejected, and that compromises have not yet been reached.
While Peskov commended Trump for his effort, he reaffirmed Kremlin commitment to ensure the negotiations bid is not made public.
“Work is currently being carried out at a working expert level,” Peskov 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.”
The backdrop to the talks includes a leaked 28-point US draft peace plan, which drew criticism from Ukrainian and European officials for largely aligning with Moscow’s key demands. European powers subsequently proposed a counter-framework, which the US and Ukraine later refined in Geneva.
Putin has accused European powers of attempting to derail the negotiations by proposing measures “absolutely unacceptable to Russia.” According to his foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, Moscow reviewed an initial 27-point proposal and four additional documents with Witkoff during the talks.
While the exact contents of the proposals remain undisclosed, Kremlin officials emphasized that the search for compromise continues.
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