Russia ready for talks without preconditions

MOSCOW/ROME — Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed his country's readiness to negotiate with Ukraine without preconditions during his talks with US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

"During yesterday's talks with Trump's envoy Witkoff, Vladimir Putin reiterated that Russia is ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine without any preconditions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding Putin has spoken about it repeatedly.

Witkoff met Putin for three hours in Moscow on Friday to discuss the US plan to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who took part in the meeting, described it as constructive and very useful.

"This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to further bring their positions closer together, not only on Ukraine but also on a number of other international issues," he told reporters.

"As for the Ukrainian crisis itself, the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine."

Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the conflict, which broke out in February 2022.

According to texts seen by Reuters, the peace proposal Witkoff has presented calls for formal US recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, plus de facto recognition of Russia's hold on areas near southern and eastern Ukraine that its forces control.

Witkoff's meeting took place just hours after a car bomb killed a senior Russian military officer near Moscow. Russia's FSB security service said on Saturday that it had detained a suspect.

The Kremlin blamed Ukraine for the killing of 59-year-old Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

There was no official comment from Kyiv on Moskalik's death.

The FSB named the suspect as Ignat Kuzin, saying he was "an agent of the Ukrainian special services".

Major points

After Witkoff's meeting concluded, Trump said it was a good day of talks and called for a high-level meeting between Kyiv and Moscow to close a deal.

"Most of the major points are agreed to," Trump said in a social media post after landing in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was also in Rome for the funeral. He met Trump one-on-one in a Vatican basilica on Saturday to try to revive the faltering peace efforts.

Zelensky said the meeting could prove historic if it delivers the kind of peace he is hoping for, and a White House spokesperson called it "very productive".

The two leaders, leaning in close to each other with no aides around them while seated in St. Peter's Basilica, spoke for about 15 minutes, according to Zelensky's office, and images of the meeting released by Kyiv and Washington.

The meeting at the Vatican was their first since an angry encounter in the Oval Office in Washington in February.

In a post on Telegram, Zelensky wrote: "Good meeting. One-on-one, we managed to discuss a lot. We hope for a result from all the things that were spoken about."

He said those topics included: "The protection of the lives of our people. A complete and unconditional ceasefire. A reliable and lasting peace that will prevent a recurrence of war."

Zelensky added: "It was a very symbolic meeting that has the potential to become historic if we achieve joint results. Thank you, President Donald Trump!"

In another development, Putin hailed on Saturday what he said was the complete failure of an offensive by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region after Moscow said they had been expelled from the last village they had been holding.

However, Kyiv denied its forces had been expelled from Kursk and said they were also still operating in Belgorod, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.

"The Kyiv regime's adventure has completely failed," Putin said in a video footage released by the Kremlin that showed him receiving a report from the head of Russia's general staff, Valery Gerasimov.

"The full defeat of the enemy in the Kursk border region creates conditions for further successful actions by our forces on other important parts of the front," Putin said.

The state RIA news agency reported on Sunday that a Russian military commander has told Putin "the scattered remnants" of the Ukrainian army remaining in Kursk will soon be destroyed.

Agencies\Xinhua