Two-hour discussion between representatives of the United States and Russia in Davos. First reactions
Jared Kushner (left), Kiril Dmitriev (center) and Steve Witkoff (right). Credit: Kristina Kormilitsyna / Zuma Press / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump's envoy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's envoy said on Tuesday that the discussion in Davos about a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine was “very positive” and “constructive”.
The US has held talks with Russia and, separately, Ukraine and European leaders over proposals to end the war launched by Moscow in February 2022, but no agreement has yet been reached, despite promises made by Donald Trump.
Ukraine's European allies, currently grappling with Trump's threats to Greenland, are concerned that Washington could ask Kiev to accept territorial concessions.
“The dialogue is constructive and more and more people understand the correctness of the Russian position,” Putin's emissary Kiril Dmitriev said after meeting with U.S. emissary Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, at the “USA House” in Davos.
On the other hand, according to the Russian news agency RIA, Witkoff said: “We had a very positive meeting.”
The meeting lasted two hours, a source said on condition of anonymity.
At stake are the end of Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II, the future of Ukraine and the sustainability of the peace deal the US is trying to broker.
Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022 after eight months of fighting in eastern Ukraine, and currently controls about 19 percent of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, most of the Donbas region, much of Kherson and Zaporizhia, and areas of four other regions.
