Russian President Vladimir Putin met U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Saturday, calling the situation in Ukraine "difficult" while praising President Trump's push for a settlement. Moscow ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv tied to the visit but stopped short of a broader ceasefire, and the two sides remain far apart on how the war ends.
Putin opened his meeting with Witkoff and Kushner in the Kremlin on Saturday by telling them the situation in Ukraine is "difficult". He praised Trump's efforts to end the four-and-a-half-year war, a day after Trump said the U.S. had a fresh proposal aimed at ending the conflict without elaborating. Foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov and investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev again flanked Putin, as they have in previous meetings.
A Limited Pause, Not a Ceasefire
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin had ordered the military not to strike Kyiv for three days starting at midnight Saturday, tied to the envoys' planned visit to the Ukrainian capital. Putin noted that the intensity of Ukrainian attacks on Russia had also decreased, but Russia had not yet agreed to a broader three-day ceasefire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had spoken with the two envoys, who are set to visit Ukraine on Sunday, and added that Ukraine was prepared to refrain from strikes on Moscow through Monday.
Positions Remain Far Apart
A source close to the Kremlin told Reuters there was no chance of a front-line agreement until Putin finishes securing the remaining part of the Donetsk region, and that he is confident, based on his commanders' reports, that this would happen by the end of the year. Western military analysts see that as remote given Moscow's slow rate of progress, while Ukraine has refused to surrender land it has defended at heavy cost.
The Kremlin said Friday that the position Putin laid out in a speech two years ago — that Ukraine cede the entire territory of four claimed regions and drop its bid to join NATO — remains unshakeable. Since the last peace talks in February, both sides have intensified long-range strikes deep in each other's territory, and the war at sea has also escalated.
Strain on the Ground and at Home
On the ground, front lines have stayed largely static, with Russia making only gradual gains toward taking the whole of Ukraine's Donbas region. Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries have led to a summer of fuel shortages and rising prices for Russian motorists, and some 30 attacks on warehouses belonging mostly to Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, have hit the consumer economy.
Source: Investing.com (Reuters)
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