Putin calls talks with US on ending the Ukraine war ‘useful’ but also ‘difficult work’

(AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said his five-hour talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war in Ukraine were “necessary” and “useful” but also “difficult work,” with some of the proposals unacceptable to the Kremlin.

Putin spoke to the India Today TV channel ahead of his visit to New Delhi on Thursday, and while the full interview is yet to be broadcast, Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti quoted some of Putin’s remarks.

The Russian leader’s comments come as U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are set to meet with Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, on Thursday in Miami for further talks, according to a senior Trump administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The high-stakes talks are part of Trump’s renewed push to end the nearly four-year war. The peace effort has recently gathered steam, even though reconciling Russia’s and Ukraine’s “red lines” still appears to be an uphill battle.

Trump said Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from their marathon session with Putin in the Kremlin confident that he wants to find an end to the war.

“Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” Trump said.

Tass quoted Putin as saying in the interview that at the talks in the Kremlin, the sides “had to go through each point” of the U.S. peace proposal, “which is why it took so long.”

“This was a necessary conversation, a very concrete one,” the Russian president said.

There were provisions that Moscow said it was ready to discuss, while others “we can’t agree to,” Putin said.

“There were these provisions, we discussed them, it’s difficult work,” he added.

Tass reported that Putin was asked whether the 28-point peace plan drafted by the U.S. is still relevant, to which the Russian president replied that those provisions were indeed discussed.

“They just divided these 28, I think 27, points into four packages,” Putin was quoted as saying. “And they proposed that we discuss these four packages. But essentially, they are the same (provisions).”

It is unclear whether Putin meant that the Kremlin talks covered the version of the plan before it was amended following U.S.-Ukraine talks in Geneva last weekend.

His aide Yuri Ushakov said earlier this week that several documents were being discussed at the talks.

“At first there was one version, then this version was revised, and instead of one document, a few more appeared,” Ushakov said.

Putin refused to go into details as to what Russia could agree to and what it finds unacceptable. None of the officials involved in the negotiations has offered details of the talks.

“I think it is premature. Because it could simply disrupt the working regime” of the peace effort, Tass quoted Putin as saying.

The Russian leader added that Washington is engaged in “shuttle diplomacy.”

“They spoke to the Europeans, then came to us, then they have another meeting with the Ukrainians and the Europeans,” he said.

Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight into Thursday. A ballistic missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, injuring six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.

He said the strike damaged over 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes in the city, which is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town.

A 6-year-old girl died in Kherson, a southern port city, after Russian artillery shelling injured her the previous day.

“Doctors fought until the very end to save her life, but her injuries were too severe,” regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.

Russia also struck Odesa with drones, injuring six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Kiper.

Overall, Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 138 drones of various types at Ukraine overnight, officials said.