Russia ready for war with Europe, Putin says, before Ukraine peace talks

2025-12-03 15:11:00

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to reporters during his press conference at the VTB Investment Forum “Russia is Calling!”, on December 2, 2025 in Moscow, Russia. Putin visited the annual forum hosted by the VTB Group, before his talks with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Peace talks held between the United States and Russia on Tuesday failed to achieve a breakthrough with the Russian president Vladimir Putin Before intensifying discussions on threats to Europe, they said Russia was “ready” for war with the continent.

American President Donald TrumpSpecial envoy for Afghanistan Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow for talks with Putin and his closest aides on a draft peace plan aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine.

Russian Presidential Assistant Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the talks that the talks lasted five hours, adding that the meeting focused on the peace plan drafted by the United States and it was “very useful, constructive and informative,” but there is more work to be done.

He added, “We agreed on some matters…and others raised criticism from the president.” [Putin] We also made no secret of our critical, even negative, stance toward a number of proposals. “But the main thing is that we had a very useful discussion,” Ushakov said in comments translated by NBC News.

It is not clear what peace plan was presented to the Russians after an initial 28-point plan, drafted in secret by the United States and Russia, was presented to Ukraine a few weeks ago.

Kiev and its European allies hastily revised that plan, reducing it to 19 proposals, with Ukrainian officials traveling to Florida last weekend for further talks on the proposals.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin, aiming to find a solution to end the Ukrainian war, in Moscow, Russia, on December 2, 2025.

Kremlin Press Office/Anadolu via Getty Images

Russia and Ukraine are miles apart when it comes to key elements of the framework peace agreement, with Moscow demanding that Kiev cede partially occupied territories in the east of the country to Russia, and disagreeing over Western-backed security guarantees for Ukraine.

Putin’s aide Ushakov said on Tuesday that the two sides discussed a 27-point plan and received more documents from the US side, although he did not clarify the content of those documents. He added that Russia and the United States agreed not to reveal the details of the talks.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it would be incorrect to say that Putin rejected the proposals made to him by the US delegation.

“A direct exchange of views took place yesterday for the first time,” Peskov said in statements reported by Reuters news agency. “Some things have been accepted, some things have been marked as unacceptable – this is a normal business process of coming to a compromise.”

“Ready” for war

The talks in Moscow came after Putin launched a fierce attack against Europe, saying that counter-peace proposals were “absolutely unacceptable” for Russia, and that the region’s leadership “has no peace agenda.”

“We will not go to war with Europe, I have said that a hundred times. But if Europe suddenly wants to fight us and starts fighting, we are ready now,” Putin told reporters before his meeting with Witkov and Kushner.

European officials have expressed consternation in recent weeks that they and Ukraine were excluded from initial US-Russia talks that led to an original draft peace plan seen as heavily favoring Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his visit to the command post of Russia’s Group of Forces “West” in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unspecified location, in this still image taken from video released on November 20, 2025.

kremlin.ru | Via Reuters

“This week could be pivotal for diplomacy. It is clear that Russia does not want peace, and therefore we need to make Ukraine as strong as possible,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.

Europe certainly watched Tuesday’s talks in Russia closely. There are fears that it was Trump who did this They seem to have a warmer relationship with Putin Alternatively, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could, on occasion, throw his support behind Russian peace proposals in an attempt to end the war sooner rather than later.

Keen to appear optimistic about the prospects for peace, Zelensky told Irish lawmakers on Tuesday that Ukraine was “closer to peace than ever” and that there was a “real, real chance” of reaching an agreement after talks with Washington.

Don’t rush to reach an agreement

Geopolitical experts say the Kremlin is willing to continue the peace process as long as possible, with Russia stressing that it has the advantage on the battlefield and can extract significant concessions from Ukraine in the peace process.

Paul Skinner, investment director at Wellington Management, was also pessimistic about any near-term progress towards peace.

“We believe the Ukrainian-Russian story will continue and continue,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday.

“We are unlikely to reach a solution. While Putin is still advancing, he is unlikely to seek peace. And I’m afraid our expectation, as it has been from the beginning, is that this will be a long-term problem.”

Michael Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was in Putin’s interest “just to keep the process going, and to have a long process of diplomatic engagement.”

Michael Froman of the Council on Foreign Relations talks about US-Russia talks, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the controversy over boat strikes in the Caribbean

“He wants to have a broader conversation about Russia’s reintegration with the West and relations with the United States, trade agreements with the United States, and make this a long and drawn-out thing as he continues to bomb Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and makes incremental progress on the ground,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday.

Amos Hochstein, managing partner of TWG Global and former senior advisor to the president in the Biden administration, agreed that Russia would likely delay on the deal.

Amos Hochstein on US-Russia talks: The Russians are in no rush to reach an agreement here

“I think it’s hard to get to a point in the deal where the Ukrainians have to give up a lot of territory in exchange for somewhat loose security guarantees, and for the Ukrainians who have fought a lot over the last few years, it’s hard to accept that,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

He added: “I think the problem is that the Ukrainians will probably be able to make concessions on some of these matters, but any concessions they get from the United States on that deal will be difficult to convince the Russians to agree to.” [ as they] “It relies on war, it wants to win, but it also has a war economy.”

He added: “The Russians are in no hurry to reach an agreement here.”