“For the first time, a direct exchange of views took place yesterday. President Putin accepted some of the U.S. proposals on resolving the Ukraine conflict, while rejecting others. This is a normal working process in the search for compromise,” Peskov said during a regular press briefing on December 3, according to TASS and Reuters. His comments came one day after talks in Moscow between Putin and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff as well as Jared Kushner, adviser and son-in-law to President Donald Trump.
According to Peskov, Russia is willing to negotiate with the United States as many times as necessary to find a solution to the conflict in Ukraine.
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“We appreciate the efforts of President Donald Trump’s administration, and we are ready to meet—however many times it takes—to achieve a peace agreement,” he added.
Peskov also expressed hope that the United States would uphold confidentiality throughout the negotiation process.
“We will not disclose detailed developments of our discussions with the U.S., as excessive publicity would not be productive. Work is underway at the expert level, and it is at this level that certain results must be achieved before they can serve as the basis for higher-level contacts,” Peskov noted.
From the U.S. side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the main obstacle to a Russia–Ukraine peace deal is a stretch of territory in Donbass that remains under Kyiv’s control.
“What they are fighting over now is essentially an area about 30–50 kilometers wide, representing roughly 20% of the Donetsk region that is still held by Ukraine,” Rubio said in a December 3 interview with Fox News.
Rubio stated that Washington’s goal is “to find something Ukraine can accept so future security commitments can be guaranteed.” He added that the U.S. is working to promote peaceful solutions, but the final outcome depends on decisions made by Moscow and Kyiv.
“In the end, it will be up to them. If they decide they do not want to end the conflict, then the conflict will continue,” he said.
On December 2, local time, President Putin held a nearly five-hour meeting at the Kremlin with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, who also attended the meeting, described the talks as “quite useful, constructive, and substantive,” though he noted that no compromise had been reached yet and that “a great deal of work remains to be done.”
In November, the Trump administration proposed a 28-point peace plan for the Russia–Ukraine conflict. According to media reports, the plan included significant concessions from Ukraine, such as abandoning its NATO ambitions and reducing its armed forces to 600,000 troops. Ukraine would also be asked to relinquish the remaining parts of eastern Donbass, including areas still under Kyiv’s control, and cut its military strength by half.
The proposal faced strong opposition from Ukraine and several European countries, who argued that some provisions were overly favorable to Russia. On November 23, a Ukrainian delegation held discussions with U.S. and European partners in Geneva, Switzerland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later stated that the original 28-point plan had been “streamlined” and revised with more appropriate elements.
On November 30, U.S. and Ukrainian representatives continued consultations in Florida, discussing possible pathways to end the conflict, long-term solutions for economic and security issues, prospects for holding elections in Ukraine, and matters related to territory.