American negotiators in Moscow with Putin for important talks on Ukraine

(Patria) - Top American negotiators, including Steve Witkoff, met late last night in Moscow for talks on a plan devised by the United States to end the war in Ukraine, just as Kyiv announced it had agreed on post-war security guarantees with Washington.

Diplomatic efforts to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II have accelerated in recent months, although both Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement, AFP reports.
Witkoff previously said he believed the two sides had "boiled it down to one issue," without giving details.

Video released by the Kremlin shows a smiling Putin shaking hands with Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum.

From the Russian side, negotiator Kirill Dmitriev and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov participated, the Kremlin announced.

The high-stakes meeting followed just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a draft agreement was "almost, almost ready" and that he and Trump had agreed on the issue of post-war security guarantees.

Russia, which has occupied about twenty percent of Ukraine, is advocating for full control over the eastern Donbas region as part of the agreement.

But Kyiv has warned that ceding territory would embolden Moscow and says it will not sign a peace deal that fails to deter Russia from attacking again.

Following a meeting with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zelenskyy said the security guarantees were "done," speaking in English to reporters. He said the United Kingdom and France had already committed to providing forces on the ground.

Europe 'fragmented'

Neither Witkoff nor Kushner stayed overnight in the Russian capital, but flew directly to Abu Dhabi, where talks will continue in "military-to-military" working groups, Witkoff said.

Details of the upcoming negotiations in the United Arab Emirates have not been released, and it is unclear whether Russian and Ukrainian officials will meet face-to-face.
Zelenskyy said these talks would last two days.

Trump reiterated on Wednesday that he was confident Putin and Zelenskyy were close to an agreement.

"I believe they are now at a point where they can get together and make a deal. And if they don't, they're stupid – that goes for both of them," he said after a speech in Davos.

Zelenskyy, in his address in Davos, sharply criticized the European Union's lack of "political will" to confront Putin.
"Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and medium-sized powers," he said.

Trump's dramatic foreign policy shifts, including a recent attempt to acquire Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, have raised concerns in Europe about whether Washington can be trusted as a reliable security partner.

Zelenskyy, in his speech, criticized Europe for hoping that Washington would defend it in case of aggression.

"Europe seems lost trying to convince the US President to change," Zelenskyy said.

Russian strikes this week have left much of Kyiv without electricity, and residents of 4,000 buildings without heating in sub-zero temperatures.

Kyiv says the strikes are a war crime designed to exhaust the civilian population into submission.