A Russian businessman and envoy of President Vladimir Putin met with American officials in the US to discuss a proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said, “Kirill Dmitriev is currently on a business trip to Miami. He will bring some signals that the Americans have received from the Europeans and from the Ukrainians. And we will discuss all this here, see what can be accepted that cannot be categorically accepted.”
After talks concluded on Sunday, Dmitriev told the press, “The discussions are constructive. They began and continued today, and will also continue tomorrow.”
The Kremlin responded positively to the 28-point peace plan developed by President Donald Trump that leaked last month. “The American side clearly links the possibility of developing cooperation with the settlement process.” Spokesman Dmitry Peskov continued, “We are interested, we believe that these two processes should not be interrelated. And the Russian side believes that there may be a lot of mutually beneficial projects on the agenda.”
However, Trump’s proposal has been altered after input from Europeans and Ukrainians. Ushakov said the peace plans from Europe and Ukraine were “rather unconstructive.”
Dmitriev also blamed the Western press for undermining Trump’s push to end the war. “Let’s acknowledge the well-funded, well-organized warmonger media campaign in the US, UK & EU to undermine President Trump’s peace plan. UK/EU politicians push the ‘let’s go to war with Russia’—covering up migration blunders/cashing in on weapons sales via ‘friendly’ contractors,” he wrote on X.
Moscow and Kiev remain at odds over several key points, including territory, Ukraine’s future alliances, and post-war payments to rebuild Ukraine.
Europe could set back Trump’s effort to end the war by using frozen Russian assets to provide aid to Ukraine. The Trump proposal leverages the release of the assets to score concessions from Russia and uses some of the funds to begin rebuilding Ukraine.
On Friday, Putin called the EU’s plan to use frozen Russian assets a robbery. “Theft is an inappropriate definition. Theft means the secret stealing of property. But in this case, it’s out in the open. That’s robbery,” he said.
