Davos, Switzerland. Envoys for US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin said their meeting in Davos on a possible future peace deal to end the war in Ukraine was “very positive” and “constructive”.
Davos meeting and participants
Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev spoke after talks with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the “USA House” at Davos. The meeting lasted for two hours, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Dmitriev said: “Dialogue is constructive and more and more people understand the fairness of Russian position.” Witkoff said: “We had a very positive meeting,” Russia’s Ria news agency reported.
Broader contacts and concerns
The United States has held talks with Russia, and separately with Kyiv and European leaders, on proposals for ending the war in Ukraine, but no deal has yet been reached despite Trump’s repeated promises to clinch one.
Ukraine’s European allies, currently arguing in public about Trump’s threats against Greenland, are concerned the United States could demand Ukraine accept territorial concessions.
War background and territorial control
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
Russia controls about 19 per cent of Ukraine, including the Crimea peninsula which it annexed in 2014, as well as most of the eastern Donbas region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and slivers of four other regions.
Russia says Crimea, Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are now parts of Russia. Ukraine says it will never accept that, and almost all countries consider the regions to be part of Ukraine.
What concessions, if any, would you accept as part of a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine?
