In an interview with India Today, ahead of Putin's departure for India later today, the president comes out strongly on the issue of Donbass in eastern Ukraine.
"Either we liberate these territories by force of arms, or Ukrainian troops leave these territories and stop killing people," he says.
Putin calls Tuesday's four-hour meeting with US envoys Witkoff and Kushner "productive". According to the president, almost all points in the US peace plan were discussed thoroughly - and several of them Moscow is said to have opposed. According to Putin, the proposals are "in one way or another" based on agreements reached during his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska in August.
“Ukraine was heard”
Ukraine's chief negotiator Rustem Umyrov will arrive in the United States on Thursday, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States Olha Stefanishyna told reporters on Wednesday. There he is expected to be briefed by US envoys about Tuesday's meeting with Putin in Moscow.
Earlier on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Umyerov and colleague Andriy Hnatov would travel to the United States to meet with Witkoff and Kushner, without giving a date for the trip.
"Everything is moving forward quite effectively now. At meetings in Geneva and Florida, Ukraine was heard, and Ukraine was listened to. And that is important. We expect it to continue that way," Zelenskyy said in his daily evening update.
Trump is speechless
Before Putin's interview with India Today, not much had emerged from the Moscow meeting on Tuesday, beyond words like "productive" and "pretty good."
"I can't tell you what the outcome of the meeting was because it takes two to tango," said US President Donald Trump late on Wednesday.
Shortly after the meeting, Yuri Ushakov, a close advisor to Putin, stated that the parties had not managed to agree on any compromise:
Some of the proposed wording does not suit us.
