Putin’s meeting with U.S. reps on Ukraine peace proposal ends past midnight in Moscow

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The meeting between Putin and the U.S. Delegation has concluded, Reuters is reporting, citing the Kremlin’s press service.

We’re still waiting to see what U.S. Officials will have to say, if anything, following their meeting with Putin.

Reuters is reporting the talks are still going on late into the Moscow night after more than 3½ hours.

Ahead of the meeting, a smiling Putin told Witkoff he was glad to see him and asked him about a walk he took with Kushner around Moscow, according to Reuters.

Kushner's re-emergence in a second Trump administration occurred months ago as he worked alongside Witkoff to help the U.S. Negotiate what was finalized in October, an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.

Speaking to Israel's Knesset in October, Trump said in reference to Kushner, "We need that brain on occasion."

"We always bring Jared when we want to get that deal closed," Trump said.

In a 2021 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Kushner wrote that the Israel-Hamas war was "nothing more than a real-estate dispute between Israelis and Palestinians."

Kushner's return to the scene comes without so much as a White House adviser title, and more than a few questions. When Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, served as advisers during his father-in-law's first term, they reported at least $172 million US ($241 million Cdn) in outside income, according to the non-profit watchdog Citizen For Ethics.

Reuters reported that Kushner and Witkoff met in Miami in October with Kirill Dmitriev, who heads a Russian sovereign wealth fund. It's since then that Kushner has been seen at the table for talks with Ukrainian officials.

For more on Kushner, you can read Chris Iorfida's full article here.

While we wait to see what, if anything, the U.S. Delegation has to say after its meeting with Putin, it's worth underscoring how American support for Ukraine has changed under Trump.

Germany's Kiel Institute, which tracks military and economic aid to Ukraine, says Europe is now Ukraine's largest benefactor, with $167 billion US ($236 billion Cdn) in contributions since the start of Russia's invasion in 2022, compared to $130 billion US ($182 billion Cdn) from the United States.

Kiel's Ukraine Support Tracker says Nordic nations, especially Norway and Sweden, have helped make up for diminishing U.S. Contributions.

The U.K. Has stepped up contributions as well, and Germany and France remain solid backers of Ukraine's efforts to defend itself.

Canada's Global Affairs department says the country has committed almost $22 billion in military, economic and humanitarian support.

In July, the U.S. Announced its first major new package of military assistance to Ukraine under the Trump administration, but the plan is for Europe to foot the bill for the purchase of the new American-made weaponry.

"What a mess," Trump said of the war in Ukraine, during a White House cabinet meeting.

"Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled. Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess."

He said the war "never would have happened" if he'd been president in 2022 when Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though he did not say why.

"We're trying to get that settled … I think. I hope, I hope," Trump said of the war, before repeating a questionable claim that he has ended eight wars.

"I should get the Nobel prize for every war, but I don't want to be greedy."

Trump said he cared about the people dying in the nearly four-year-old war. "What a shame," he said, before turning to the subject of crime in American cities.

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, said Putin's remarks today show "he does not plan to end the war."

Writing on X, the minister said Putin's comments yesterday that Russia was prepared to fight through the winter, and his threats today against Ukrainian ports and sea navigation showed the Russian president is "wasting the world's time."

"We fully support all fair efforts that can bring a fair peace. The teams of Ukraine and the United States, together with our European partners, have worked a lot and achieved important progress," Sybiha wrote. "Now it is time to force the source of war in Moscow to end it."

Sybiha is set to meet with NATO ministers and the EU's Kaja Kallas tomorrow.

Reuters is reporting that the meeting between U.S. Special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian officials is happening now.

I was just speaking to Oleksi Melnyk, a Ukrainian defence analyst at the Razumkov Centre in Kyiv, who’s been closely following this latest push for peace led by Donald Trump.

He said Putin's dismissive remarks about Europeans are not surprising, given that the Russian leader believes he is negotiating from a position of strength.

Melnyk says Putin likely does not feel he needs to make any concessions because the Ukrainians, Americans and Europeans are divided. He told me he believes this latest peace effort has just a "one per cent" chance of being successful, in part because Ukrainian society will never let Zelenskyy — or any Ukrainian president — accept terms that will diminish the country’s sovereignty.

In 2014, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were involved in street protests that eventually led to the ouster of Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovych, who tried to block reforms that would have moved Ukraine closer to the West.

Both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up strikes on energy facilities as the war nears its four-year mark.

Ukraine carried out strikes on at least eight Russian oil refineries last month as part of its strategy to weaken Russia's war effort, Reuters reports. Ukraine's top drone commander Robert Brovdi said 108 missions in November damaged critical energy and military facilities.

Brovdi said his forces' targets included power substations in Russia and Russian-occupied territory inside Ukraine.

The initial U.S.-backed 28-point peace plan, based largely on Russian talking points, contained some interesting references to Europe.

While the proposals shot down the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, it left the door open to Ukraine joining the European Union. Putin has always been extremely dismissive of the EU; he's characterized the 27-country bloc as being hostile to Russia and behaving like a vassal entity of the United States.

Putin may not object to potential Ukrainian EU membership, either because he thinks it's unlikely to happen or he considers the EU to be irrelevant to great power relations. He has frequently spoken about a multipolar world dominated by Russia, China, the United States and possibly India.

Putin's disdain for European leaders again punched through in today's address, as he blamed them for blocking a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

Many — but not all — European leaders fear a bad peace deal that weakens Ukrainian sovereignty will increase the likelihood of further Russian aggression.

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