After US talks in Moscow, Ukraine tells Putin to stop wasting world’s time

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andry Sibiha accused Vladimir Putin of “wasting the world’s time”, a day after high-stakes talks between the United States and Russia to end the war in Ukraine failed to produce tangible results.

“Russia must end the bloodshed it has caused. If this does not happen and Putin spits on the world again, there will be consequences,” Sibiha said.

Nonetheless, Sibiha added that the U.S. delegation had told his colleagues that the talks were “positive for the peace process” and that they had invited Ukrainian officials to continue talks in the United States in the near future.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkov and his son-in-law Jared Kushner spent nearly five hours with Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday, and the White House said Wednesday they briefed Trump after a “thorough and productive meeting.”

The U.S.-Russian talks follow days of U.S. meetings with Ukrainian and European leaders amid concerns that a deal being brewed is too biased toward Russian demands.

Little concrete progress appeared to be made during the Kremlin talks in reconciling the positions of Moscow and Kiev.

Putin’s senior policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said there was “no compromise” on ending the war. “Some of the U.S. proposals look more or less acceptable, although they require further discussion,” he said, adding that others had been publicly criticized by Russian leaders.

Although Ushakov did not elaborate further, at least two major points of contention remain between Moscow and Kiev – the fate of Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian forces and Ukraine’s security.

Kiev and its European partners believe that even if a peace deal is reached, the most effective way to deter future Russian attacks is to allow Ukraine to join NATO.

Russia strongly opposes the proposal, and Trump has repeatedly said he has no intention of including Kyiv in the alliance.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s prospects of joining NATO were a “key issue” for Moscow to address.

Ushakov suggested that Russia’s negotiating position had been strengthened due to recent battlefield victories.

He said Russian soldiers “helped our foreign partners to conduct a more appropriate assessment of the path to a peaceful solution.”

Putin, wearing military uniform and receiving a briefing from his commander at a Russian command post ahead of the U.S. visit to the Kremlin, claimed to have captured the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine and other nearby settlements.

Fighting continues in Pokrovsk, and Russian troops do not control the entire city, but Russian officials apparently believe the United States has heard their message about military advances.

Russian forces have made some incremental gains in the east and appear to have stepped up their offensive in recent weeks. They captured about 701 square kilometers (270 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in November and currently control 19.3% of Ukrainian territory, according to an AFP analysis of US Institute of War (ISW) data.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Putin was ready to meet with the Americans “as many times as necessary.”

But as relations between Russia and the United States appear to be getting friendlier, the gulf between Moscow and Europe is widening.

Putin has accused Europe of undermining Russia’s relations with the United States, making demands unacceptable to Moscow and obstructing the peace process. Shortly before meeting Vitkov and Kushner, Putin told a forum in Moscow that while he did not want conflict with Europe, he was “ready for war.”

British government officials rejected Putin’s message, calling it “another Kremlin drivel from a president who is not serious about peace.”

NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday, with Secretary-General Mark Rutte saying progress in peace talks was positive but Ukraine must be in the “strongest position to keep the fighting going.”

Meanwhile, EU member states have reached an agreement with members of the European Parliament to make Europe fully independent of Russian gas by the end of 2027.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed “the dawn of a new era” under a deal that means a ban on long-term gas pipeline contracts with Russia from September 2027 and a ban on long-term liquefied natural gas contracts with Russia from January 2027.

“We chose Europe’s energy security and independence. No more blackmail. No more market manipulation by Putin. We stand with Ukraine,” EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Wednesday.

The committee also proposed raising 90 billion euros for Ukraine to fund its military and basic services while the war in Russia continues.

The plan would either require Belgium to agree to a “compensation loan” using frozen Russian assets held by a financial institution in Brussels, or the money would be funded by international borrowing.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko welcomed the proposal, which would cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs over the next two years.

Belgium has rejected plans to use frozen assets held on its territory, fearing legal consequences for Moscow. The European Central Bank (ECB) also opposed the idea, saying it would not act as a backstop for compensation loans.

The proposed loan is smaller than the originally planned €140 billion loan, and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadfel said “we support this and, of course, take Belgium’s concerns seriously”.