US special envoy Steve Witkoff (second from left) and Jared Kushner, opposite Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov (fourth from right), Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Kirill Dmitriev, director general of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (right), at the Kremlin in Moscow, December 2, 2025. ALEXANDER KAZAKOV / AP
No compromise was reached after five hours of talks. Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, December 3, under the Kremlin's gilded ceilings, Vladimir Putin's diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov appeared somber and stoic as he briefed reporters following the meeting between the Russian president and US envoy Steve Witkoff. In effect, he acknowledged the latest failure in the Ukraine peace negotiations, despite more than a month of intense diplomatic activity. "So far we haven't found a compromise [on Ukrainian territories], but some American solutions can be discussed," Ushakov acknowledged, his jaw clenched and words carefully measured. "There is still much work to be done," he warned, describing the conversation as "useful" and "constructive."
Witkoff, who, in a phone conversation revealed by Bloomberg on November 25, told Ushakov he had "the deepest respect for President Putin," made no comments to the press. From the Kremlin, he went directly to the US embassy in Moscow to speak with Donald Trump on a secure phone line. Witkoff, who was accompanied in Moscow by Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law, could fly to Brussels on Wednesday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky said on Tuesday he expected to communicate with the US negotiation team immediately after their talks with Putin. "The future and the next steps depend on these signals, whatever they may be," the Ukrainian president said.
