美国总统唐纳德·特朗普周三表示，美国特使史蒂夫·威特科夫和他的女婿贾里德·库什纳与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京进行了“相当不错的会晤”莫斯科的高风险谈判他补充说，美国谈判代表认为普京“希望结束战争”
“我不知道克里姆林宫在干什么。我可以告诉你，他们与普京总统进行了相当不错的会晤。我们会找到答案的。这是一场不应该开始的战争，”特朗普在椭圆形办公室告诉记者。
川普说，周二晚上在克里姆林宫与维特科夫和库什纳会面后，他与他们进行了交谈。
“那次会议产生了什么结果?我不能告诉你，因为一个巴掌拍不响，”特朗普说。
“他想结束战争，”特朗普谈到普京时说。“那是他们的印象。现在，不管你知不知道那是他们的印象，你知道他们的印象是他们希望看到他希望看到战争结束。”
“我认为他想回到更正常的生活中去。坦率地说，我认为他更愿意与美国进行贸易，而不是，你知道，每周损失数千名士兵。但他们的印象非常强烈，他想达成协议，”特朗普谈到普京时说。
据美国政府一名高级官员称，维特科夫和库什纳已邀请乌克兰国家安全和国防委员会(National Security and Defense Council)秘书乌梅罗夫(Rustem Umerov)周四前往迈阿密进行进一步的和谈。
维特科夫和库什纳与普京进行了马拉松式的会谈，以结束俄罗斯对乌克兰近四年的入侵，但双方都没有宣布立即取得突破。
尽管谈判双方-由美国的维特科夫和库什纳领导-以及在莫斯科进行谈判的普京-发誓保密，并没有全面介绍他们的讨论，但显而易见的是，和平协议尚未达成，正如特朗普长期以来所期望的那样。
普京的高级外交政策助理尤里·乌沙科夫(Yuri Ushakov)说，“到目前为止，还没有找到妥协的方案，但美国的一些提议似乎或多或少可以接受，”他在莫斯科会议期间出席了会议，随后对俄罗斯媒体发表了讲话。"总统没有隐瞒我们对某些提议的批评或否定意见。"
“我们在一些事情上达成了一致...而另一些则引起了批评，总统[普京]也毫不掩饰我们对一些提议的批评甚至否定态度。但最重要的是，我们进行了非常有益的讨论，”乌沙科夫说。
目前还不清楚，在上月向乌克兰提交了最初的28点计划的细节后，向俄罗斯提交了哪个和平计划。基辅及其欧洲盟友迅速修改了19点计划。
本周参与谈判的各方都没有详细说明该提议的当前版本。
在维特科夫、库什纳和普京的高调会晤之后——美国代表团向普京提交了概述美国计划的四份文件——乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基表示，基辅的谈判代表将于周三在布鲁塞尔与欧洲领导人会面，讨论克里姆林宫会议的结果。
他补充说，高级谈判代表乌梅罗夫和陆军总司令安德里·赫纳托夫将准备与美国特使的会晤。
地缘政治专家认为，整个乌克兰-俄罗斯和平计划的实质现在取决于两个要点:领土让步和安全保证。
和平协议的主要障碍仍然存在
不属于派往莫斯科的美国代表团成员的美国国务卿马尔科·卢比奥周二晚些时候表示，停火建议已经取得了“一些进展”，但“我们仍然没有达成一致——我们仍然不够接近”
他强调，“只有普京能在俄罗斯一方结束这场战争。”
他还强调了和平协议的一个主要症结:莫斯科继续要求乌克兰军队撤出整个顿巴斯地区。乌克兰一直拒绝向俄罗斯割让领土。
卢比奥在福克斯新闻频道上表示:“他们现在真正争夺的是30至50公里的空间和顿涅茨克地区剩余的20%。”“所以，我们努力做的——我认为已经取得了一些进展——是弄清楚乌克兰人可以忍受什么，给他们未来的安全保证，他们永远不会再被入侵。”
卢比奥进一步概述说，和平计划还应该解决乌克兰的长期主权和独立问题，“以便他们不会成为一个傀儡国家”，同时也允许乌克兰的经济复苏和繁荣。
“这就是我们在这里努力实现的，”卢比奥说。
保卫民主基金会俄国项目副主任约翰·哈迪说，如果克里姆林宫拒绝回到谈判桌前，和平协议将仍然难以达成。
“克里姆林宫仍然不愿意为基辅能够接受的解决方案做出必要的妥协。在这种情况改变之前，特朗普总统的外交努力不太可能达成协议，更不用说保护美国和乌克兰利益的协议了，”哈迪告诉美国广播公司新闻。“华盛顿需要与其盟友和乌克兰合作，最大限度地向莫斯科施加军事、经济和外交压力。”
但是卢比奥在电视采访中强调，乌克兰和俄罗斯应该解决他们之间的分歧，以实现持久的和平。
“归根结底，这不是我们能决定的。这不是我们的战争。我们没有反抗。没有美国士兵。它在另一个大陆上。“我们订婚了，因为我们是唯一能订婚的人，”他说。如果有可能达成协议，世界上唯一能与双方对话并达成协议的领导人是特朗普总统。他很有耐心。他为此投入了大量时间。"
“最终，这将取决于他们。如果他们决定不想结束战争，那么战争将继续下去，”他补充说。
美国对外关系委员会主席迈克尔·弗罗曼(Michael Froman)表示，保持这一进程，进行长期的外交接触，符合普京的利益。
弗罗曼在周二的一次电视采访中说，“他希望就俄罗斯重新融入西方以及与美国的关系、与美国的商业协议进行更广泛的对话，并在继续轰炸乌克兰的能源基础设施并在实地取得逐步进展的同时，延长对话时间。”。
Trump says Witkoff, Kushner had 'reasonably good meeting' with Putin despite no breakthrough
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner had a "reasonably good meeting" with Russian President Vladimir Putin duringhigh-stakes negotiations in Moscow, adding that the U.S. negotiators believed Putin "would like to end the war."
"I don't know what the Kremlin is doing. I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin. We're going to find out. It's a war that should have never been started," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump said he spoke with Witkoff and Kushner Tuesday night following their meeting at the Kremlin.
"What comes out of that meeting? I can't tell you, because it does take two to tango," Trump said.
"He would like to end the war," Trump said of Putin. "That was their impression. Now, whether or not you know that was their impression, you know their impression was that they'd like to see he would like to see the war ended."
"I think he'd like to get back to dealing a more normal life. I think he'd like to be trading with the United States of America, frankly, instead of, you know, losing thousands of soldiers a week. But their impression was very strongly that he'd like to make a deal," Trump said of Putin.
Witkoff and Kushner have invited Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov to Miami on Thursday for further peace talks, according to a senior U.S. administration official.
Witkoff and Kushner conducted marathon talks with Putin to bring about the end of the nearly four-year Russian invasion of Ukraine, but no immediate breakthroughs were announced by either side.
Though both sides in the negotiations -- led by Witkoff and Kushner from the U.S. -- and Putin who conducted negotiations in Moscow -- vowed secrecy and provided no comprehensive briefings of their discussion, it became clear that a deal for peace was not yet in hand as Trump has long desired.
"So far no compromise option has been found, but some American proposals appear more or less acceptable," said Putin's top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, who was in the room for the Moscow meeting and spoke to Russian media afterward. "The president did not hide our critical or negative view of certain proposals."
"We agreed on some things ... while others caused criticism, and the president [Putin] also made no secret of our critical, even negative, attitude toward a number of proposals. But the main thing is that we had a very useful discussion," Ushakov said.
It's unclear which peace plan was presented to the Russians after details of an initial 28-point plan were presented to Ukraine last month. Kyiv and its European allies worked quickly to amend down to a 19-point plan.
None of the parties involved in the negotiations this week has detailed the current version of the proposal.
Following the high-profile meeting between Witkoff, Kushner and Putin -- in which the U.S. delegation presented Putin with four documents outlining Washington's plan -- Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said negotiators from Kyiv would meet with European leaders in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the outcome of the Kremlin meeting.
He added that senior negotiator Umerov and army chief Andrii Hnatov would then prepare for meetings with the U.S. envoys.
Geopolitical experts believe the essence of the entire Ukraine-Russia peace plan now hinges on two main points: territory concessions and security guarantees.
Major hangups on a peace deal remain
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was not part of the American delegation sent to Moscow, said late Tuesday that "some progress" had been made on the truce proposal, but "we're still not there -- we're still not close enough."
He stressed that "only Putin can end this war on the Russian side."
He also highlighted a major sticking point in the peace deal: Moscow's continued demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the entire Donbas region. Ukraine has long rejected ceding territory to Russia.
"What they're literally fighting over now is about a 30-to-50 kilometer space and the 20% of the Donetsk region that remains," Rubio said on Fox News. "And so, what we have tried to do -- and I think have made some progress -- is figure out what could the Ukrainians live with that gives them security guarantees for the future they're never going to be invaded again."
Rubio further outlined that the peace plan should also address Ukraine's long-term sovereignty and independence "so that they don't become a puppet state" while also allowing for Ukraine's economy to recover and prosper.
"That's what we're trying to achieve here," Rubio said.
John Hardie, Russia Program Deputy Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that if the Kremlin refuses to come to the bargaining table, a peace deal will remain elusive.
"The Kremlin remains unwilling to make the compromises necessary for a settlement Kyiv can live with. Until that changes, President Trump's diplomatic efforts are unlikely to produce a deal, let alone one that protects U.S. and Ukrainian interests," Hardie told ABC News. "Washington needs to work with its allies and Ukraine to maximize military, economic, and diplomatic pressure on Moscow."
But Rubio stressed in his television interview that it's up to both Ukraine and Russia to settle their differences to reach a durable and lasting peace.
"And at the end of the day, it's not up to us.It's not our war.We're not fighting it; there aren't American soldiers.It's on another continent.We are engaged because we're the only ones that can," he said. "The only leader in the world that can talk to both sides and make a deal, if a deal is possible, is President Trump.And he's been very patient.He's dedicated a lot of time to it."
"Ultimately, it's going to be up to them. If they decide they don't want to end the war, then the war will continue," he added.
Michael Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was in Putin's "interest just to keep the process going, to have a long process of diplomatic engagement."
"He wants to have a broader conversation about Russia's reintegration with the West and relations with the United States, commercial agreements with the United States, and to make this long and drawn out while he continues to bomb Ukraine's energy infrastructure and makes incremental progress on the ground," Froman said during a televised interview Tuesday.
