Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has accused Vladimir Putin of “wasting the world’s time”, a day after high-stakes talks between the US and Russia over ending the war in Ukraine failed to produce tangible results.
“Russia must end the bloodshed it has started. If this doesn’t happen and Putin just spits into the world’s face once again, there must be consequences,” Sybiha said.
Still, Sybiha added that the US delegation had told his colleagues that the talks had been of “positive significance for the peace process” and they had invited Ukrainian officials to continue talks in the US in the near future.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner spent almost five hours with Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday and the White House said on Wednesday they had briefed Trump after a “thorough, productive meeting”.
Putin’s senior policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said “no compromise” on ending the war had been found. “Some of the US proposals look more or less acceptable, though they need to be discussed further”, he said, while adding that others had been openly criticised by Russia’s leader.
Although Ushakov did not elaborate further, at least two major points of contention remain between Moscow and Kyiv – the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Kyiv and its European partners believe that, even in the event of a peace deal, the most effective way to deter Russia from attacking again in the future would be to grant Ukraine membership of Nato.
Russia is vehemently opposed to such a proposal, and Trump too has repeatedly signalled he has no intention of letting Kyiv into the alliance.
The prospect of Ukraine joining Nato was a “key question” that was tackled in Moscow, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
