Trump said Tuesday’s talks in the Kremlin were “reasonably good”, adding it was too soon to say what would happen as “it does take two to tango”.

The original iteration of the US peace plan proposed to hand over areas of the Donbas still under Ukrainian control to the de facto control of Putin – but the Witkoff team presented a modified version in Moscow.

In his India Today interview ahead of a state visit to Delhi, Putin said he had not seen the new version before his talks with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

“That’s why we had to go over every point, that’s why it took so long,” the Kremlin leader said.

He also said Moscow disagreed with parts of the US plan.

“At times we said that yes, we can discuss this, but to that we can’t agree,” Putin said.

He did not name the sticking points. At least two significant points of contention remain – the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Putin’s senior foreign policy adviser and key negotiator Yuri Ushakov earlier said straight after the talks that they produced “no compromise” on ending the war.

Ushakov also implied that the Russian negotiating position had been strengthened thanks to what Moscow said were its recent successes on the battlefield.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of stalling any ceasefire agreements, saying Moscow is seeking to seize more Ukrainian territory.

Commenting on the Kremlin talks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybhia said Putin was “wasting the world’s time”.

Ukraine has long insisted on firm security guarantees for Ukraine in any deal.

On Wednesday, Zelensky said “the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war” – but negotiations must be “backed by pressure on Russia”, which Kyiv and its European allies accuse of deliberately stalling any ceasefire agreements.

The Ukrainian president said last week his top negotiators had managed to make some key changes in the original US peace plan – seen as strongly favouring Moscow – during talks with an American delegation in Geneva on 23 November.

In a joint statement, US and Ukrainian negotiators said at the time they had drawn up an updated and refined peace framework – but provided no further details.

Top negotiators from Europe – who had voiced concern over the original US plan – were also in the Swiss city last week, meeting separately with the Ukrainian and the US teams.

In a separate development on Thursday, Germany’s Der Spiegel news website said it had obtained a confidential transcript of a conference call in which European leaders expressed concern over the US negotiations.

“There is a possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said, according to an English transcript of Monday’s conference call.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was quoted as warning that Zelensky had to be “extremely careful in the coming days”.

“They are playing games, both with you and with us,” Merz reportedly said.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb was also quoted as saying: “We mustn’t leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys.”

The BBC has not seen the reported transcript.

In response to a Der Spiegel inquiry, France’s Élysée Palace stated that “the president did not express himself in those terms”. The presidential office declined to provide details on how Macron expressed himself, citing confidentiality.

Stubb declined to comment to Der Spiegel, and Merz has not commented on the issue.

In a statement to the BBC, the White House said: “Secretary [Marco] Rubio, Special Envoy Witkoff, Mr Kushner, and the President’s entire national security team are working tirelessly to stop the killing between Russia and Ukraine.”

“They have held productive meetings to gather feedback from both sides on a plan that can foster a durable, enforceable peace,” the statement read.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

In recent weeks, Russian troops have been slowly advancing in south-east Ukraine, despite reported heavy combat casualties.

[BBC]

Putin’s visit to Delhi is coming at a crucial time for Modi and India’s global ambitions.

India-Russia ties go back to the Soviet era and have endured irrespective of the changing geopolitical landscape.

Putin has arguably put more time and energy into this relationship than other Russian leaders before him.

As for Modi, despite coming under intense pressure from Western governments to criticise Russia over its war in Ukraine, he maintained that dialogue was the only way to resolve the conflict.

This was India’s “strategic autonomy” at play – with Modi occupying a particular place in the geopolitical order where he held close ties with Moscow while maintaining his relationship with the West at the same time.

That worked – until Trump returned to the White House. India-US ties have hit an all time low in recent months as the two countries have failed to resolve the tariff deadlock.

In this context, Putin’s visit assumes more significance for Modi than ever before because it will test India’s geopolitical autonomy. He will be walking the proverbial diplomatic tightrope here.

Modi would want to show Indians at home and in the wider world that he still counts Putin as his ally and hasn’t given into pressure from Trump, whom he has earlier called his “true friend”.

But he has also faced pressure from his allies in Europe – just this week, the German, French and UK ambassadors in India wrote a rare joint article in a major newspaper criticising Russia’s stance on Ukraine.

And so, Modi will have to ensure that the strengthening of India-Russia ties does not overshadow ongoing trade talks with the US and his partnership with Europe.

“For India, the challenge is strategic balance – protecting autonomy while navigating pressure from Washington and dependence on Moscow,” said the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think-tank.

Modi’s other priority will be to unlock the potential of bilateral trade between India and Russia.

Analysts have often said that the economic relationship between the two strong allies has underperformed for decades.

Their bilateral trade rose to $68.72bn at the end of March 2025, up from just $8.1bn in 2020. This was largely due to India sharply increasing discounted Russian oil purchases. This has skewed the balance heavily in favour of Russia and that is something Modi would want to correct.

With Indian firms already reducing oil purchases from Russia to avoid sanctions from Washington, the two countries will look at other areas to boost trade.

Defence is the easiest pick. India’s defence imports from Russia reduced to 36% between 2020 and 2024, from the peaks of 72% in 2010-2015 and 55% between 2015 and 2019, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

This was largely due to India’s attempt to diversify its defence portfolio and boost domestic manufacturing.

But a closer look at these numbers tells a different story. Several Indian defence platforms still rely heavily on Russia. Many of its 29 air force squadrons use Russian Sukhoi-30 jets.

India’s limited armed conflict with Pakistan in May this year proved the indispensable role of Russian platforms like the S-400 air defence systems in its armed forces but it also showed the vulnerabilities that the country urgently needs to fix.

Reports suggest that India wants to buy the upgraded S-500 systems and the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet. Pakistan’s purchase of the China-made J-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter has not gone unnoticed in Delhi, and it would want to secure a comparable jet as soon as possible.

But Russia is already facing a shortage of critical components due to sanctions and the war in Ukraine. The deadline to deliver some units of the S-400 have reportedly been delayed to 2026. Modi will seek some guarantees on timelines with Putin.

Modi would also want Russia’s economy to open space for Indian products to fix the massive trade imbalance.

“Consumer-oriented and high-visibility categories remain marginal: smartphones ($75.9m), shrimp ($75.7m), meat ($63m) and garments at just $20.94m underscore India’s limited penetration in Russia’s retail markets and electronics value chains despite geopolitical churn,” GTRI said.

Modi aims to position Indian goods in Russia’s market, especially once the war ends and Moscow is reintegrated into the global economy.

He would seek to lessen trade dependence on oil and defence, aiming for a deal that strengthens ties with Russia while leaving room to deepen relations with the West.

“Putin’s visit is not a nostalgic return to Cold War diplomacy. It is a negotiation over risk, supply chains and economic insulation. A modest outcome will secure oil and defence; an ambitious one will reshape regional economics,” GTRI said.

[BBC]