Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his five-hour talks with US envoys on ending the ongoing war in Ukraine were necessary and useful but also difficult work, as some of the proposals were unacceptable to the Kremlin, the media reported on Thursday.
His remarks to a private news channel came ahead of his high-profile, two-day visit to New Delhi, beginning Thursday evening.
Putin’s comments come as US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are set to meet with Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, on Thursday in Miami for further talks, according to a senior Trump administration official.
The high-stakes talks are part of Trump’s renewed push to end the nearly four-year war. The peace effort has recently gathered steam, even though reconciling Russia’s and Ukraine’s red lines still appears an uphill battle.
Trump said on Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from their marathon session with Putin, confident that he wants to find an end to the war.
Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal, Trump said.
Russian news outlet Tass quoted Putin as saying in the interview with the Indian channel that at the talks in the Kremlin, the sides had to go through each point of the US peace proposal, which is why it took so long.
This was a necessary conversation, a very concrete one, the Russian President said.
There were provisions that Moscow said it was ready to discuss, while others we can’t agree to, Putin said.
It’s difficult work, he added.