Putin praises US efforts on Ukrainian settlement, says 'complex work' underway

MOSCOW

Praising the US efforts on Ukrainian settlement, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described the Dec. 2 meeting with US negotiators Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner as "necessary and beneficial."

In an interview with the India Today TV channel, Putin said the five-hour meeting was needed to discuss each point of US President Donald Trump's peace proposals.

According to him, the plan is based on agreements from the Russia-US summit in Alaska in August.

"What our American colleagues brought was based, one way or another, on the agreements we reached during my meeting with President Trump in Alaska; we discussed these issues at the Anchorage meeting," Putin said.

He assessed that Trump is seeking a consensus on Ukraine, "but this is a difficult task."

Putin stated that he agreed with some points of Trump's plan and disagreed with others, describing the process as "a complex work."

When asked if the 28-point plan is still valid, Putin replied: "Exactly these points are being discussed."

"Simply, they split these 28, I think 27 points, into four packages. And they proposed that we discuss these four packages. But fundamentally, these are the same points," he explained.

Commenting on the EU's position, Putin said Europeans should engage in the settlement process rather than hinder it.

He also recalled that at the start of the conflict, Moscow proposed that Kyiv withdraw Ukrainian forces from Donbas to avoid military confrontation, but Ukraine chose otherwise.

"We immediately told Ukraine, to Ukrainian troops—people do not want to live with you; they went to vote in a referendum, voted for independence, withdraw your troops and there will be no military action. No, they prefer to fight. Well, now they've fought themselves into a corner," Putin noted.

He argued that "Russia will liberate Donbass and Novorossiya either by military means or otherwise."

"Everything comes down to this. Either we will liberate these territories by military means, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories and stop fighting there," he said.