But the President’s team left without a deal, as the Kremlin declared “the two sides were neither further nor closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine. There is a lot of work to be done.”
However, speaking on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the suggestion Mr Putin personally rejected the 20-point peace plan.
Mr Peskov said it is “wrong” to say Russia has rejected the peace deal and said the talks were only “an exchange of opinions” rather than concrete negotiations.
On Wednesday, a further blow for Trump’s hopes to end the war was dealt – as a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy’s aides and the same US delegates was cancelled.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy had taken to Twitter to announce Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, and the chief of Ukraine’s general staff, Andrii Hnatov, would hold talks with Mr Trump’s team in the US today.
But the talks were cancelled at short notice.
The US-Russia talks followed days of US meetings with Ukrainian and European leaders, after concerns had been expressed that a deal was being hatched that was too slanted towards Russia’s demands.
Little concrete headway appears to have been made during the Kremlin talks in reconciling Moscow and Kyiv’s positions.
Before the new round of talks got underway, President Putin gave a startling statement, declaring: “We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now.”