‘Obvious’ Putin doesn't want peace in Ukraine, say Nato ministers, as Russia denies snubbing US plan

Nato foreign ministers on Wednesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of showing no willingness to pursue peace in Ukraine, even as Moscow said it was ready to meet US negotiators as many times as it took to reach a ceasefire agreement and broader peace deal.

“What we see is that Putin has not changed any course. He’s pushing more aggressively on the battlefield. It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t want to have any kind of peace,” Associated Press quoted Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna as saying at a meeting with European counterparts.

Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen echoed the sentiment, adding that “the best confidence-building measure would be to start with a full ceasefire,” noting that no concessions have come from Russia.

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Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had not rejected any US proposals, describing the process as a normal negotiation in which “some things were accepted, some things were marked as unacceptable.”

Peskov was speaking after talks in Moscow between Putin and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner went into the early hours of Wednesday morning, with a  Kremlin  aide saying afterwards that “compromises have not yet been found.”

Asked if it would be correct to say that Putin had rejected the US proposals, Peskov said that it would not.

“A direct exchange of views took place yesterday for the first time,” Reuters quoted Peskov as saying.

“Some things were accepted, some things were marked as unacceptable - this is a normal working process of finding a compromise,” he added.

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Peskov said that Russia was grateful to Trump for his efforts but that the  Kremlin  would not be giving a running commentary on discussions with the United States as publicity was unlikely to be constructive.

“Work is currently being carried out at a working expert level,” Peskov said. “It is at the expert level that certain results should be achieved that will then become the basis for contacts at the highest level.”

Peskov also criticised the European Union for being “obsessed with the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.”

He weighed in on the EU’s decision to cut off Russian energy supplies, warning that the move “would only accelerate the process that has been under way in recent years of the European economy losing its leading potential.”

Despite Russia’s assurances, Nato ministers signaled growing frustration with Moscow’s lack of progress toward peace, underscoring the widening gap between Western expectations and Russia’s current military strategy.

Proposals under scrutiny

A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals surfaced in November, sparking concern among Ukrainian and European officials who said the plan largely accommodated Moscow’s main demands.

In response, European powers developed a counter-proposal. At subsequent talks in Geneva, the US and Ukraine announced they had produced an “updated and refined peace framework” aimed at ending the conflict.

On Tuesday, President Putin claimed European powers were attempting to derail the negotiations by putting forward ideas that Moscow found “absolutely unacceptable.”

Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters after the Witkoff talks that Russia had previously received a 27-point set of proposals, followed by four additional documents discussed with Witkoff.

Last week, Putin said that the US and Ukraine had broken the initial proposals into four separate components, though the exact contents have not been publicly disclosed.

With inputs from agencies