Putin hosts 'constructive' talks with US envoys as Trump makes new push for Ukraine peace deal

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Tuesday. The meeting is part of a new push by the Trump Administration to broker a peace deal in the four-year Ukraine war. Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.

Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor told reporters that the conversation was "very useful, constructive, and highly substantive."

"It lasted not for five minutes, but for five hours," Ushakov said. "This allowed us to thoroughly discuss the prospects for further joint efforts aimed at achieving a long-term peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian crisis.”

The meeting came days after US officials held talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described those talks as “productive” but said there was more work to be done.

A US-backed peace plan became public last month and raised concerns about being tilted heavily toward Moscow. The proposal granted some of the Kremlin's core demands that Kyiv has rejected, such as Ukraine ceding the eastern region of the Donbas to Russia and renouncing its bid to join NATO. Negotiators have indicated the framework has changed, but it’s not clear how.

Russia claims victory in Pokrovsk

Also on Tuesday, the Kremlin released a video it claimed showed troops waving a Russian flag in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. The video hasn’t been verified and Ukrainian officials haven’t commented. President Zelenskyy, however, said on Monday that fighting was still ongoing.

Pokrovsk sits along the eastern front line in part of what has been dubbed the “fortress belt” of Donetsk, crucial to Ukraine’s defense of the region. The line of heavily fortified cities is crucial to Ukraine’s defense of the region, including Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Druzhkivka.