Russia and Ukraine have not conducted direct conversations since the first weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
The envoy of the president of the United States, Steve Witkoff, with Russian President Vladimir Putin for three hours in Moscow to discuss the efforts of the United States to end the Ukraine War, and the Kremlin said that the positions of the two parties had approached.
Witkoff has become Washington’s key interlocutor with Putin while Trump presses an agreement to finish the war, now until well in his fourth year, and has already had three meetings of length with the leader of the Kremlin.
On Thursday, the video published by the Russian state media showed Witkoff gathering Putin in the Kremlin, with the two smiling, shaking his hand and exchanging some words in English before starting the conversations.
The Kremlin foreign policy assistant, Yuri Ushakov, who served with Witkoff on Friday, described the three -hour meeting as constructive and very useful.
“This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to gather their positions further, not only in Ukraine but also in a series of other international issues,” he told reporters.
“As for the Ukrainian crisis itself, the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian and Ukraine Federation.”
Russia and Ukraine have not conducted direct conversations since the first weeks of the war, which began when Putin ordered a large -scale invasion in February 2022.
Witkoff and the White House have not yet commented on the result of the meeting.
His last trip continues to the conversations this week in which Ukrainian and European officials retreated against some of the United States proposals on how to resolve the Russian war in Ukraine, the most mortal in Europe since World War II.
Trump has threatened to get away from the conversations if he does not see progress towards a high fire.
On Thursday, after the Russian attacks against kyiv killed 12 people, Trump wrote on social networks: “Vladimir, hold!”, Adding “Let’s make the peace agreement!”
When asked how he would answer if Russia would not accept an agreement, Trump said Thursday: “I’m going to be happy, let me say it that way. Things will happen.”
Russia, who warned against a peace agreement, said Thursday that he was “ready to reach an agreement” but needed certain problems addressed first.
“There are still some specific points … that they must be adjusted, and we are busy with this,” said its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, to CBS News.
The United States has suggested to freeze the front line and the acceptance of the Russian control of Crimea, a peninsula attached to the Kremlin in 2014, in exchange for peace.
Trump was summoned in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday by saying: “Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zenskyy understands it.”
Ukraine has rejected the land assigned to Moscow, and says that he will not accept Russian control of Crimea, which has occupied Russia’s bone since 2014.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyy has accepted in recent months that he could try to ensure the return of some lands captured by Russia through diplomacy once there is a high fire.
