Putin holds firm on Ukraine demands in meeting with US envoys

Vladimir Poutine remained inflexible on his maximalist demands to end the war in Ukraine during a Thursday meeting with Donald Trump's envoys at the Kremlin, while proposing a temporary truce in a key frontline city. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met the Russian president in Moscow before heading to Dublin to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, following US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi. Russia insists on security discussions modeled on the 1945 Yalta and Potsdam conferences, while rejecting European participation in negotiations. Russia occupies over 19% of Ukrainian territory and rejects foreign troop deployments in Ukraine as "absolutely unacceptable." Zelensky noted a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire before 2027, but Moscow says it will only sign an agreement on its own terms.