After being debriefed on the Moscow meeting between US special envoys and Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump told reporters that the Russian leader wants to do a deal, but the next steps to reach an agreement were “unclear.”

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner debriefed Trump by phone following a five-hour meeting with Putin in Moscow on December 3 and reported that real progress had been made, but talks were stuck on a few key points starting with the status of the five Ukrainian regions occupied occupied by the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR).

Trump described the talks as “reasonably good” discussions between Putin and senior US envoys, Reuters reports.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump confirmed that Witkoff and senior adviser Kushner said some agreements had been reached in principle. “Their impression from Putin was that he would like to make a deal,” Trump said. “What comes out of that meeting I can’t tell you because it does take two to tango.”

Trump added that the US side had “something pretty well worked out with Ukraine”, though details of any draft agreement were not disclosed.

The Kremlin confirmed on Wednesday that Putin had engaged with several elements of a set of American proposals intended to end the conflict but indicated that significant differences remained. “Some things were accepted, some things were marked as unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “This is a normal working process of finding a compromise.”

Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy advisor, who was also at the meeting, acknowledged in comments to the Russian press that “compromises have not yet been found”.

“It was an extremely useful, constructive and substantive conversation, which did not last five minutes but five hours. In other words, we had an opportunity for a detailed discussion of the outlook for our further joint work to achieve a durable peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” Ushakov said.

Next steps in Miami

Real negotiations to end the war in Ukraine are now clearly underway for the first time since the failed 2022 Istanbul peace deal. However, as bne IntelliNews reported, Putin believes he is arguing from a position of strength and is unwilling to make large concessions on topics like sovereignty over the occupied territories or Ukraine’s mooted membership of Nato.

Following the Moscow summit, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to meet again with Ukrainian officials in Miami on December 4, according to a White House official, and presumably discuss Bankova’s response to Putin’s demands.

Witkoff met with a Ukrainian delegation led by newly appointed chief negotiator Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustam Umerov at a Florida summit on November 30 just before flying to Moscow to see Putin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed in his nightly video address that dialogue with Trump’s representatives would continue. “Only by taking Ukraine’s interests into account is a dignified peace possible,” Zelenskiy said.

Both the Kremlin and the White House confirmed that the contents of the talks in Moscow on December 3 will remain classified, but presumably Witkoff will debrief Ukrainian officials in Miami and seek compromises on the sticking points.

Putin hand improved

Putin’s hand has been strengthened by a string of recent setbacks. After more than a year of fighting it appears the key logistical hub of Pokrovsk has largely fallen to the Russian forces on December 1 in a major strategic defeat. Ukraine is also in deep financial trouble as the EU flounders in its efforts to organize a €140bn Reparation Loan. And the Zelenskiy administration is embroiled in the rapidly expanding Energoatom corruption scandal that has already claimed two ministers as well as the president’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who has been leading the talks with the US until now.

While Moscow has publicly welcomed Trump’s involvement and said work on the deal would now continue at the level of foreign ministry staff who will start drilling into the details and look for suitable language for a draft final agreement.

“Work is currently being carried out at a working expert level,” Peskov said. “It is at the expert level that certain results should be achieved that will then become the basis for contacts at the highest level.”

Despite a Geneva summit organised by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on November 23 that gave Europe a chance to comment on the original 28-point peace plan (28PPP), the talks in Moscow appear to have focused exclusively on the original U plan. At Geneva amongst the version was a 19-point peace plan (19PPP) which Putin lambasted in comments on December 3, saying it was purposely designed to derail the negotiations. Ushakov confirmed that at the Moscow meeting they discussed a plan with 27 points, plus an additional four unidentified documents were introduced to the talks.

Putin added that Europe has “removed itself” from the negotiation as it “wants war” and is playing no part in talks.

“They proposed ideas which were absolutely unacceptable to Russia,” he said.

Witkoff also listened to the Ukrainian demands at the 6.5 hour meeting in Florida just ahead of his trip to Moscow, but also said that many points remained “unresolved.”

Ushakov gives some details

While both sides have agreed to not talk about the details of the talks, Ushakov gave away some information to the Russian press corps.

“We certainly talked with our American colleagues about the essence of the draft documents that the Americans sent to Moscow some time ago. We discussed these documents. We did not discuss the wording or specific American proposals. We discussed the essence of these American documents,” Ushakov said.

“We agree with some of them, as the President has told our interlocutors, while other elements elicited some criticism, and the President made no secret of our critical and even negative attitude towards some of the proposals. But what matters most is that we had an extremely useful discussion,” he added in a largely upbeat spin as serious talks get underway.

“I would like to reiterate that the most important thing is that the sides have stated their readiness to continue their joint work towards achieving a durable peaceful settlement in Ukraine,” Ushakov said.

Ushakov emphasised that the question of territories was top of the agenda, “without which the crisis cannot be settled, as we see it.”

He also alluded to the list of business deals that the 28PPP included such as the joint exploitation of critical minerals in the Arctic that was discussed by the two presidents at the Alaska summit on August 15. Ushakov made it clear these deals are on the table. Trump has made it very clear that he wants to do business with Russia and these talks are more a business deal than a peace settlement.

The fact that the two key people involved in the negotiations are Witkoff and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, who was also present, both businessmen, but Russia’s veteran Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was not only underscores the commercial background to the talks.

“It has been pointed out that there are vast opportunities for cooperation if we genuinely want this. If we do, it is time to demonstrate a sincere desire for cooperation both in Moscow and in Washington,” Ushakov said.

The aide also said that no meeting between Putin and Trump was planned for the moment: “As for a potential meeting at the presidential level, this will depend on the progress we are able to achieve as we work persistently and diligently through the channels of aides, foreign ministry representatives, and other agencies,” he said.

Ushakov also welcomed the participation of Kushner, who is a new player in the US-Russian talks and reportedly participating as Trump’s personal representative. The fact that Trump’s son-in-law is a member of the team and not Secretary of State Marco Rubio, highlights again the commercial nature of the talks as not only has the Kremlin sidelined its foreign minister, so has the White House.

Rubio is seen as a leader in the White House pro-Ukraine faction that has emerged in a split on how to bring the war to an end. The more pragmatic faction that believes Kyiv has already lost is headed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Kushner is also reportedly tied to this fraction. Germany’s commander in chief reported this week that the US has suddenly cut off weapons supplies to Ukraine again and broken off contact with the European Nato allies.

“Yes, we can say that [Kushner] is a relatively new participant, but he worked quite productively with Mr Witkoff in the Middle East, as you may know. The achievements in Gaza were the result not only of Mr Witkoff and other US representatives, but also of Jared, of course,” Ushakov said. “He joined the Russian-American and Ukrainian dossier some time ago, and specifically, he has taken an active part, as I understand, in drafting the documents that have been handed over to us.”

These comments also confirm that the deal under discussion is largely the original 28PPP deal and that other European versions such as the 19PPP were not introduced to the Kremlin.

“I cannot disclose the details of these documents. I said that all of them concerned the long-term peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis. Initially, there was one version; later this version was upgraded, leading to four documents instead of one. That is all I can tell you,” Ushakov said.

Ushakov was asked specifically if the European version was discussed. He referred to Putin’s scathing comments on Europe and that Russia was prepared to go to war with Europe if that is what Brussels wants to do.

“Our President, as is only natural, has given his assessment of the destructive actions that we see the Europeans perpetrating in the context of the settlement,” said Ushakov in a veiled rebuke of Europe’s role in the efforts to end the conflict.