Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to journalists during a press conference at the VTB Investment Forum “Russia Calling!” held in Moscow, Russia on December 2, 2025. Prior to his meeting with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, President Putin visited the annual forum hosted by VTB Group.
Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Peace talks between the United States and Russia on Tuesday failed to yield a breakthrough, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying Russia was “ready” for war on the continent and stepping up the threat to Europe ahead of talks.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were in Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin and his aides about a draft peace plan aimed at ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
The talks lasted five hours, Russian presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the meeting, which focused on the U.S.-drafted peace plan and was “very useful, very constructive, very useful,” but that there was still work to be done.
“We agreed on some points… On the other hand, there were points that aroused criticism, and the president (Putin) did not hide our critical and even negative attitude towards many proposals. But the important thing is that we had very fruitful discussions,” Ushakov said in comments translated by NBC News.
It is unclear which peace plan was presented to Ukraine after an initial 28-point peace plan developed in secret by the United States and Russia was presented to Ukraine several weeks ago.
Kiev and its European allies hastily revised its plan, narrowing it down to 19 proposals, and Ukrainian officials visited Florida last weekend for further consultations on the proposals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin with the aim of finding a solution to ending the war in Ukraine, December 2, 2025 in Moscow, Russia.
Kremlin Press Office/Anadolu, via Getty Images
Russia and Ukraine are far apart on the central elements of the framework peace agreement, with Russia demanding that Kiev cede partially occupied territory in the country’s east to Russia, while they disagree over Ukraine’s Western-backed security.
Ushakov, a close aide to President Vladimir Putin, said on Tuesday that the two countries had discussed a 27-point plan and had received further documents from the American side, without elaborating on their contents. He added that Russia and the United States had agreed not to reveal details of the talks.
“Ready” for war
The meeting in Moscow came after Putin launched a fierce attack on Europe, saying counter-peace proposals for Europe would be “absolutely unacceptable” to Russia and that the region’s leadership had “no peace agenda.”
“We’re not going to war with Europe. I’ve said it hundreds of times. But if Europe suddenly wants to fight us and starts fighting, we’re ready right now,” Putin told reporters ahead of his meeting with Witkov and Kushner.
European officials have expressed surprise in recent weeks that European countries and Ukraine were excluded from initial talks between the United States and Russia that led to a draft peace plan seen as largely favorable to Russia.
In a still image taken from a video published on November 20, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a visit to the command post of the Russian military “Western” forces in an unknown location during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
via Kremlin Reuters
“This could be a very important week for diplomacy. It is clear that Russia does not want peace, so we need to make Ukraine as strong as possible,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Karas said on Monday.
Europe will be watching Tuesday’s talks in Russia closely. There are concerns that Trump, who at times appears to have a friendlier relationship with Putin than with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, could abandon support for Russia’s peace plan in an effort to bring the war to a quick end.
Zelenskyy wanted to appear optimistic about the prospects for peace on Tuesday, saying Ukraine was “closer to peace than ever before” and that there was a “really, really good chance” of a deal after talks with the United States.
No need to rush to trade
Geopolitical experts argue that the Kremlin intends to hold out the peace process for as long as possible, and that Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield and can extract significant concessions from Ukraine in the peace process.
“It is only in President Putin’s interest to continue the process and maintain a process of long-term diplomatic engagement,” said Michael Froman, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“The president wants to have a broader conversation about Russia’s reintegration with the West, its relationship with the United States, its trade deals with the United States, and he wants to prolong this for a long, long time while continuing to bomb Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and making incremental progress on the ground,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday.
Amos Hochstein, a managing partner at TWG Global and a former senior adviser to the president in the Biden administration, agreed that Russia is likely to drag its feet on the deal.
“I think it’s going to be difficult to come to an agreement where we have to give up a lot of territory to the Ukrainian side in exchange for a little bit looser, flimsier security. That’s hard for the Ukrainian side, which has been fighting so hard over the last few years, to accept that,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“I think the problem is that the Ukrainians can probably compromise on some of these issues, but even if they can get any concessions from the United States on that deal, it’s going to be difficult to get the Russians to agree because (they) depend on war and want to win, but they also have a war economy.”
“Russia is in no hurry to reach an agreement here,” he added.
