Overview
- Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held nearly five hours of talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, with the US proposal recast into four negotiating packages and no comprehensive compromise announced.
- Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a substantive call with the US envoys; Axios reported hard discussions on territory and progress on security guarantees, while US envoy Keith Kellogg said a deal is close pending decisions on Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
- Bloomberg reported difficult EU–US–Ukraine consultations and said European diplomats are preparing for the possibility that the US could exit the process if it cannot secure an agreement.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed language in the new US National Security Strategy favoring dialogue with Moscow and said it could support continued work toward a settlement.
- Russia’s defense ministry said it launched grouped strikes, including Kinzhal missiles, on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and claimed battlefield gains, as Ukraine issued air-raid alerts across seven regions and Russia’s Saratov region warned of drone threats.