Kremlin says ready to hold as many Ukraine talks with US as necessary

Moscow, Russia

Russia is ready to meet with the US as many times as will be necessary to reach a solution for the Ukraine war, the Kremlin said Wednesday after negotiations between Vladimir Putin and US officials ended with no breakthrough.

Putin held hours of late-night talks with Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner Tuesday, but neither side announced headway on a peace settlement to end almost four years of war in Ukraine.

"We are grateful for the efforts of (US President Donald) Trump's administration and we are still ready to meet as many times as is needed to reach a peace settlement," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Witkoff and Kushner went to Moscow with an updated version of a US plan to end the conflict, after talks between Washington and Kyiv.

Peskov said that the Russian side had voiced what was "unacceptable" to them.

"This is a normal process," Peskov said, adding: "It was the first time there was a direct exchange of opinions."

He said Moscow was expecting the US to also be tight-lippedon the process for progress to be made.

Ahead of meeting the US officials, Putin made a hawkish statement on Europe, accusing it of working to sabotage any peace agreement.

European leaders have worried about being sidelined in the process to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

"They don't take part in the process because they are still obsessed with the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia," Peskov said.