Overview
- Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said U.S. envoys pledged any deal reached with President Donald Trump would be "ironclad," adding talks aim at a long-term settlement rather than a cease-fire.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called language in the new U.S. National Security Strategy encouraging for dialogue with Russia and broadly consistent with Moscow’s positions.
- Vladimir Putin said the American plan was presented as four packages totaling 27 points and that no compromise emerged from the roughly five-hour Kremlin meeting with Steve Uitkoff and Jared Kushner.
- U.S. special envoy Kit Kellogg identified the status of Donetsk and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as the key issues to unlock an agreement and said the United States does not intend to send troops to Ukraine.
- Volodymyr Zelensky reported a substantive call with Uitkoff and Kushner, with Axios citing progress on security guarantees but difficult territorial talks; overnight, Russia reported mass UAV interceptions including 42 over Saratov as regional alerts sounded there and across seven Ukrainian regions.