The Kremlin said on Wednesday that president Vladimir Putin accepted some US proposals aimed at ending the war in Ukraine and rejected others but that Russia was ready to meet US negotiators as many times as it took to reach an agreement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was speaking after talks in Moscow between Mr Putin and US president Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner went into the early hours of Wednesday morning, with a Kremlin aide saying afterwards that “compromises have not yet been found.”
Asked if it would be correct to say that Mr Putin had rejected the US proposals, Mr Peskov said that it would not.
“A direct exchange of views took place yesterday for the first time,” Mr Peskov said. “Some things were accepted, some things were marked as unacceptable – this is a normal working process of finding a compromise.”
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Mr Peskov said that Russia was grateful to Mr Trump for his efforts but that the Kremlin would not be giving a running commentary on discussions with the United States as publicity was unlikely to be constructive.
“Work is currently being carried out at a working expert level,” Mr 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.”
A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals emerged in November, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who said they bowed to Moscow’s main demands.
European powers then came up with a counter-proposal, and at talks in Geneva, the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
Mr Putin on Tuesday said European powers were trying to sink the peace talks by proposing ideas which were absolutely unacceptable to Russia.
Mr Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters after the Witkoff talks that Moscow had previously received a 27-point set of proposals and then four additional documents which were discussed with Mr Witkoff.
Mr Putin last week said that the US and Ukraine had divided up the initial proposals into four components. The exact contents have not been disclosed.
Meanwhile, the European Union agreed on Wednesday to phase out Russian gas imports by late 2027 as part of an effort to end the bloc’s decade-long dependency on Russian energy.
Representatives for EU governments and the European Parliament reached an agreement in the early hours of Wednesday on proposals set out by the European Commission in June to end shipments from the EU’s former top gas supplier following Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Under the agreement, the European Union will permanently halt the import of Russian gas and move towards a phase-out of Russian oil. Liquefied natural gas imports will be phased out by the end of 2026 and pipeline gas by the end of September 2027.
“Today, we are stopping these imports permanently. By depleting Putin’s war chest, we stand in solidarity with Ukraine and set our sights on new energy partnerships and opportunities for the sector,” commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
As of October, Russia accounted for 12 per cent of EU gas imports, down from 45 per cent before its 2022 full invasion of Ukraine, with Hungary, France and Belgium among the countries still receiving supplies.
The commission is also committed to phasing out remaining oil imports from Russia by the end of 2027, with a legislative proposal to be presented early next year.
Under Wednesday’s agreement, EU members will submit “national diversification” plans regarding oil and gas supplies to the commission by March 1st, and will be required to notify the EU executive whether they have Russian gas supply contracts or national bans in place.
The commission will issue recommendations based on this feedback. – Reuters
