Putin Engages in Late-Night Discussions with US Envoys on Ukraine Conflict

Putin's Late-Night Talks with US Envoys

MOSCOW, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin began a meeting with three U.S. envoys late on Thursday to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

Key Issues on the Table

Americans Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were accompanied by Josh Gruenbaum, newly appointed by President Donald Trump as a senior adviser to his Board of Peace, which is tasked with ending international conflicts.

Impact of the Ongoing Conflict

Putin greeted the Americans shortly before midnight in Moscow after Trump said a deal was "reasonably close" and Witkoff said negotiations had come down to one last issue.

Future Meetings and Economic Recovery

Minutes after the talks began, Russia said it had carried out a patrol of strategic bomber planes - something it regularly does as a show of strength and deterrence.

The defence ministry said the Tu-22M3 bombers - part of a long-range fleet that Russia has used throughout the war to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities, military targets and energy infrastructure - flew for more than five hours over the Baltic Sea, escorted by Russian fighter jets.

The Kremlin said Putin was joined, as at previous meetings with the U.S. side, by his foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and special envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

A brief video clip showed Putin shaking hands with the three Americans and inviting them to take their seats at a long oval table.

TERRITORY, NATO PLANS AMONG ISSUES

Trump has pressed hard over the past year for an end to the nearly four-year conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two. He said on Wednesday that Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would be "stupid" if they failed to come together and get a deal done.

Witkoff did not name the main outstanding problem, but all sides have previously highlighted the issue of territory.

In particular, Putin has demanded that Ukraine surrender the 20% it still holds of the eastern region of Donetsk. Zelenskiy has refused to give up land that Ukraine has successfully defended at great cost through years of grinding, attritional warfare. 

Russia also demands that Ukraine renounce its ambition to join NATO, and rejects any presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil following a peace deal.

Witkoff and Kushner flew in from Davos, Switzerland, where they met Ukrainian officials this week, and Trump met Zelenskiy on Thursday.

  Zelenskiy said after the meeting that the terms of security guarantees for Ukraine had been finalised, but that the issue of territory remained unsolved.

Ukraine is enduring its harshest winter of the war as Russia mounts heavy missile and drone strikes on its energy infrastructure. With temperatures way below freezing, hundreds of thousands of people in Kyiv and other cities have suffered long power cuts and been left without heating.

In what he called a positive sign, Zelenskiy said negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. would hold trilateral meetings for the first time in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday.

He also said a deal was almost ready on economic recovery after the war with Russia, a key element of Ukrainian-backed proposals to push back on an earlier U.S. peace plan seen as heavily favouring Moscow.

Trump, when asked what message he had for Putin, replied: "The war has to end."

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov, Filipp Lebedev and Gleb Stolyarov, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Rod Nickel and Alistair Bell)