Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow would not give ground on its territorial demands in any deal to end the war in Ukraine, during talks at the Kremlin with US President Donald Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
In an unusually televised opening exchange, Putin rejected ideas for demilitarised or "grey" zones between the two sides. "For us, there is only one line of demarcation: the state border," he said. He also warned that any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine after the war would be treated as a "legitimate target", calling such a move "the continuation of war".
Putin did propose a temporary truce in the frontline city of Kostyantynivka as a "humanitarian mission" to let the 400 to 500 civilians he said remain there leave. Russia claimed in the summer to have captured the city, but Ukraine says fighting for it is still going on.
The Moscow meeting followed two days of US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi. The US envoys pressed Putin to let European officials join the next round, and were due to travel to Dublin later on Thursday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where around 50 European leaders were gathering to discuss Ukraine and Europe's security.
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