Putin meets US envoys for midnight talks as Ukraine settlement hinges on key issue

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the settlement in Ukraine with US President Donald Trump’s envoys during marathon overnight talks, and the Kremlin insisted that the territorial issue needs to be resolved to reach a peace deal.The Kremlin meeting, which lasted past 3am on Friday, came hours after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply criticised his European allies Thursday for what he cast as their slow and fragmented response to Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion that he said has left Ukraine at the mercy of Putin amid an ongoing US push for a peace settlement.Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, who participated in Putin’s meeting with Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, said “it was reaffirmed that reaching a long-term settlement could not be expected without solving the territorial issue”, a reference to Moscow’s demand that Kyiv withdraw its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but never fully captured.Zelensky said after meeting on Thursday with Trump in Davos, Switzerland, that the future status of land in eastern Ukraine currently occupied by Russia was unresolved but that peace proposals are “nearly ready”.Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Josh Gruenbaum. Photo: Sputnik via ReutersOn a positive note, Ushakov told reporters that it was agreed that Russian, Ukrainian and US officials would hold talks on security issues related to a prospective peace deal in the United Arab Emirates on Friday.