President Donald Trump on Wednesday stated U.S. Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner had a “fairly good assembly” with Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout high-stakes negotiations in Moscow, including that the U.S. negotiators believed Putin “wish to finish the struggle.”
“I do not know what the Kremlin is doing. I can inform you that they’d a fairly good assembly with President Putin. We’ll discover out. It is a struggle that ought to have by no means been began,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace.
Trump stated he spoke with Witkoff and Kushner Tuesday evening following their assembly on the Kremlin.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media within the Oval Workplace, on the White Home, in Washington, December 3, 2025.
Will Oliver/EPA/Shutterstock
“What comes out of that assembly? I can not inform you, as a result of it does take two to tango,” Trump stated.
“He wish to finish the struggle,” Trump stated of Putin. “That was their impression. Now, whether or not or not you already know that was their impression, you already know their impression was that they’d wish to see he wish to see the struggle ended.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a gathering with President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner on the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, December 2, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik by way of Reuters
“I believe he’d wish to get again to dealing a extra regular life. I believe he’d wish to be buying and selling with the US of America, frankly, as a substitute of, you already know, shedding 1000’s of troopers every week. However their impression was very strongly that he’d wish to make a deal,” Trump stated of Putin.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Kremlin financial envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, meets with particular envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the Kremlin in Moscow on December 2, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Witkoff and Kushner have invited Ukrainian Nationwide Safety and Protection Council Secretary Rustem Umerov to Miami on Thursday for additional peace talks, in keeping with a senior U.S. administration official.
Witkoff and Kushner performed marathon talks with Putin to convey in regards to the finish of the practically four-year Russian invasion of Ukraine, however no rapid breakthroughs had been introduced by both aspect.
Although each side within the negotiations — led by Witkoff and Kushner from the U.S. — and Putin who performed negotiations in Moscow — vowed secrecy and offered no complete briefings of their dialogue, it turned clear {that a} deal for peace was not but in hand as Trump has lengthy desired.
“To date no compromise possibility has been discovered, however some American proposals seem roughly acceptable,” stated Putin’s prime international coverage aide, Yuri Ushakov, who was within the room for the Moscow assembly and spoke to Russian media afterward. “The president didn’t conceal our essential or destructive view of sure proposals.”
“We agreed on some issues … whereas others triggered criticism, and the president [Putin] additionally made no secret of our essential, even destructive, perspective towards plenty of proposals. However the principle factor is that we had a really helpful dialogue,” Ushakov stated.
President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner attend a gathering with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, December 2, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik by way of Reuters
It is unclear which peace plan was offered to the Russians after particulars of an preliminary 28-point plan had been offered to Ukraine final month. Kyiv and its European allies labored rapidly to amend right down to a 19-point plan.
Not one of the events concerned within the negotiations this week has detailed the present model of the proposal.
Following the high-profile assembly between Witkoff, Kushner and Putin — wherein the U.S. delegation offered Putin with 4 paperwork outlining Washington’s plan — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated negotiators from Kyiv would meet with European leaders in Brussels on Wednesday to debate the end result of the Kremlin assembly.
He added that senior negotiator Umerov and military chief Andrii Hnatov would then put together for conferences with the U.S. envoys.
Geopolitical specialists imagine the essence of your entire Ukraine-Russia peace plan now hinges on two details: territory concessions and safety ensures.
Main hangups on a peace deal stay
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was not a part of the American delegation despatched to Moscow, stated late Tuesday that “some progress” had been made on the truce proposal, however “we’re nonetheless not there — we’re nonetheless not shut sufficient.”
He burdened that “solely Putin can finish this struggle on the Russian aspect.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Rustem Umerov, Secretary of the Nationwide Safety of Ukraine discuss to the media Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Hallandale Seaside, Fla.
Terry Renna/AP
He additionally highlighted a serious sticking level within the peace deal: Moscow’s continued demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from your entire Donbas area. Ukraine has lengthy rejected ceding territory to Russia.
“What they’re actually combating over now could be a few 30-to-50 kilometer house and the 20% of the Donetsk area that is still,” Rubio stated on Fox Information. “And so, what we have now tried to do — and I believe have made some progress — is work out what may the Ukrainians reside with that provides them safety ensures for the longer term they’re by no means going to be invaded once more.”
Rubio additional outlined that the peace plan also needs to deal with Ukraine’s long-term sovereignty and independence “in order that they do not grow to be a puppet state” whereas additionally permitting for Ukraine’s financial system to get better and prosper.
“That is what we’re making an attempt to realize right here,” Rubio stated.
John Hardie, Russia Program Deputy Director on the Basis for Protection of Democracies, stated that if the Kremlin refuses to return to the bargaining desk, a peace deal will stay elusive.
“The Kremlin stays unwilling to make the compromises crucial for a settlement Kyiv can reside with. Till that modifications, President Trump’s diplomatic efforts are unlikely to supply a deal, not to mention one which protects U.S. and Ukrainian pursuits,” Hardie advised ABC Information. “Washington must work with its allies and Ukraine to maximise army, financial, and diplomatic stress on Moscow.”
However Rubio burdened in his tv interview that it is as much as each Ukraine and Russia to settle their variations to achieve a sturdy and lasting peace.
“And on the finish of the day, it is lower than us. It isn’t our struggle. We’re not combating it; there aren’t American troopers. It is on one other continent. We’re engaged as a result of we’re the one ones that may,” he stated. “The one chief on the earth that may discuss to each side and make a deal, if a deal is feasible, is President Trump. And he is been very affected person. He is devoted a whole lot of time to it.”
“Finally, it will be as much as them. In the event that they determine they do not need to finish the struggle, then the struggle will proceed,” he added.
Michael Froman, president of the Council on International Relations, stated it was in Putin’s “curiosity simply to maintain the method going, to have an extended technique of diplomatic engagement.”
“He desires to have a broader dialog about Russia’s reintegration with the West and relations with the US, business agreements with the US, and to make this lengthy and drawn out whereas he continues to bomb Ukraine’s vitality infrastructure and makes incremental progress on the bottom,” Froman stated throughout a televised interview Tuesday.
ABC Information’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
