Retreat or even more bloodshed: Putin's chilling message

Tens of thousands of lives hang in the balance, and the Russian leader wants a staring contest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a US plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating that any deal is still some ways off.

US President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbour nearly four years ago.

But the effort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.

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Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to meet a Ukrainian delegation led by Rustem Umerov later today, following the Americans' discussions with Putin at the Kremlin.

Putin said his five-hour talks earlier this week with Witkoff and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but also “difficult work,” and some proposals were unacceptable.

Speaking to the India Today TV channel before he landed in New Delhi for a state visit, Putin said the American proposals discussed at the Kremlin meeting were based on earlier discussions between Russia and the US, including his meeting with Trump in Alaska in August, but also included new elements.

“We had to go through practically every point, which is why it took so much time,” he said.

“It was a meaningful, highly specific, and substantive conversation. Sometimes we said, ‘Yes, we can discuss this, but with that one we cannot agree'."

Trump yesterday said Witkoff and Kushner came away from the marathon session confident that Putin wanted to find an end to the war.

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“Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” Trump said.

Putin said the initial US 28-point peace proposal was trimmed to 27 points and split into four packages. He refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other officials involved offered details of the talks.

The Russian leader praised Trump’s peace efforts, noting that “achieving consensus among conflicting parties is no easy task.”

“To say now what exactly doesn’t suit us or where we could possibly agree seems premature, since it might disrupt the very mode of operation that President Trump is trying to establish,” Putin said.

He emphasised that Russia would fulfill the goals it set and take all of the eastern Donetsk region.

“All this boils down to one thing: either we take back these territories by force, or eventually Ukrainian troops withdraw,” he said.

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European leaders, left on the sidelines by Washington as US officials engage directly with Moscow and Kyiv, have accused Putin of feigning interest in Trump's peace drive.

French President Emmanuel Macron met China’s leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, seeking to involve him in pressuring Russia towards a ceasefire.

Xi, whose country has provided strong diplomatic support for Putin, did not respond to France’s call, but said “China supports all efforts that work towards peace.”

Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight. A missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, wounding six people, including a three-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.

The attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown damaged more than 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes, Vilkul said.

A six-year-old girl died in the southern city of Kherson after Russian artillery shelling wounded her the previous day, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.

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The Kherson Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat for over 40,000 residents, shut down on Thursday after Russia pounded it with drones and artillery for several days, he said.

Authorities planned emergency meetings to find alternate sources of heating, he said. Until then, tents were erected across the city where residents could warm up and charge electronic devices.

Russia also struck Odesa with drones, wounding six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.

Overall, Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, officials said.

Meanwhile, in the Russia-occupied part of the Kherson region, two men were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on their vehicle on Thursday, Moscow-installed regional leader Vladimir Saldo said. A 68-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, he said.

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