US representatives meet with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine after peace talks fail

Representatives from the United States met with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine after a new round of peace talks without decisive progress.

It was Steve Witkoff's tenth face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss an end to a conflict that Donald Trump said he would resolve in 24 hours. Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the American president's son-in-law, took the only concrete advance from the trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi - a major prisoner exchange - and demanded European participation in the next negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States.

According to Witkoff, Putin gave the go-ahead. But Putin maintained conditions considered unacceptable by Kiev and Europeans, such as guarantees that prevent further expansion of NATO, the Western military alliance. He also rejected foreign troops in Ukraine.

“They would be a legitimate target for Russia, and the war would resume immediately,” he stressed.

US representatives meet with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine after peace negotiations fail to advance — Photo: Jornal Nacional/ Reproduction

Putin proposed a new joint Russian-Ukrainian humanitarian mission. This time, in Kostiantynivka, a disputed city in eastern Ukraine.

From the Russian capital, Moscow, to the Irish capital, Dublin. After the conversation with Putin, American envoys flew to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky. It is in this back and forth that Washington tries to bring together positions that, at decisive points, remain very far apart.

At the European Political Community summit, French President Emmanuel Macron reinforced that it is up to Europeans to define the region's own security architecture. Along these lines, around 40 countries organized themselves to reinforce in a joint declaration: peace in Ukraine needs to be decided with the Ukrainians and the security of Europe, with the Europeans.