In a still image taken from a video published on November 20, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a visit to the command post of the Russian military “Western” forces in an unknown location during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
via Kremlin Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy chief of staff said Sunday that changes made by European countries and Ukraine to a U.S. proposal to end the war in Ukraine do not improve prospects for peace.
A U.S. draft plan to end the nearly four-year war, leaked to the media last month, has raised concerns in Europe and Ukraine that it tilts too far in Russia’s favor and that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration could force Kiev to make too many concessions.
European and Ukrainian negotiators have since met with the Trump envoy to add their own proposals to the US draft, but the exact contents of the current proposal have not been made clear.
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that changes in Europe and Ukraine do not make peace more likely.
“This is not a prediction,” Ushakov said, according to Russian news agencies, but said he had not yet seen the exact proposal on paper.
“I am convinced that the proposals that Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make will not improve the document and the chances of achieving long-term peace.”
Putin’s special envoy meets with US officials in Florida
Ushakov made the remarks after Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev met with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Florida on Saturday. Dmitriev said talks would continue on Sunday.
The talks in Miami followed talks between the United States and Ukrainian and European officials on Friday.
At issue are whether Putin will agree to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War II, the future of Ukraine, how much European countries will sit on the sidelines, and whether the U.S.-brokered peace deal will survive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Saturday that Ukraine supports a U.S. proposal for tripartite talks with the United States and Russia if it facilitates further exchanges of prisoners and opens the way for talks between national leaders.
Ushakov said the proposal for tripartite talks has not been seriously discussed or worked on by anyone.
Russia says European leaders intend to derail peace talks by introducing conditions they know are unacceptable to Russia, which occupied 12 to 17 square kilometers (4.6 to 6.6 square miles) of Ukrainian territory a day in 2025.
Ukrainian and European leaders say Russia cannot be allowed to achieve its goals through what it calls an imperial-style land grab.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, sparking the biggest conflict between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
President Putin has positioned the war as a watershed in relations with the West, arguing that he humiliated Russia by expanding NATO and encroaching on areas he considers Russia’s sphere of influence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
