“Ukraine – Russia”

What does the latest round of diplomacy on Ukraine tell us about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mood and intentions?

For starters, that he’s not ready to sign a peace deal. At least, not right now.

And certainly not the deal (or deals) on the table.

“No compromise version has yet been found,” commented Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov after five hours of talks in Moscow involving Putin, US envoy Steve Witkoff, and Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

No compromise is no real surprise, considering the Kremlin leader’s uncompromising comments in recent days.

Russia has rejected a revised peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, after five hours of talks between President Putin and US representatives failed to deliver a breakthrough.

The meeting, attended by President Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, came after the Russian president accused European countries of trying to sabotage peace negotiations with “absolutely unacceptable” demands.

In remarks that suggested little hope of imminent progress towards peace, Putin said Russia was “ready” to fight a war in Europe.

Volodymyr Zelensky visited Paris on Monday to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and talk with other European leaders, no doubt boosting the Brussels establishment’s ego about its supposed role in bringing the Ukraine war to an end.

Even the New York Times oversold the discussions, saying that Zelensky had “turned to Europe.”

Volodymyr Zelensky cuts almost as lonely a figure today as he did on the first day after the Russian invasion nearly four years ago, when he vowed not to leave the country, but to fight. But there is a big difference. Then, Ukrainians rallied to the cause, rushing to join combat units, showing enormous resilience and social solidarity. Now, Russia’s military advance in the east is accelerating, Ukrainians are deserting or avoiding mobilisation and a big corruption scandal has deprived Zelensky of his hitherto most loyal lieutenants.

Ukraine’s political system is bracing for a “mini-revolution” as the county’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is forced to adapt to life without his closest adviser, chief enforcer and most loyal associate, Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday after his apartment was searched as part of a widening anti-corruption probe.

Yermak’s resignation could have tremendous consequences for domestic governance, as well as for Ukraine’s negotiating position in talks over ending the war with Russia, where he had served as the head of Ukraine’s delegation to peace talks with the White House.

“It’s a mini-revolution in the political system and the governance system,” said Kyiv-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. “Yermak was the key element in the system of power that Zelensky had built.”

Andriy Yermak was a constant, looming presence in Ukraine’s government – a seemingly immovable figure on the political stage.

Despite his towering frame, you might not always have spotted him. Yet, wherever President Volodymyr Zelensky was, Yermak was often not far away.

As his chief of staff, Yermak wielded enormous power at the top of government and was even trusted to negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf at peace talks with the US.

But as his influence grew, so did public resentment of the power this unelected official held. His political career came to an abrupt end on Friday, hours after anti-corruption investigators raided his home in Kyiv.

The United States is poised to recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories to secure a deal to end the war.

The Telegraph understands that Donald Trump has sent his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the direct offer to Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The plan to recognise territory, which breaks US diplomatic convention, is likely to go ahead despite concerns among Ukraine’s European allies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has submitted his resignation amid a corruption scandal.

Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies searched Yermak’s home in the morning on Friday. Yermak said he was fully co-operating with the investigators.

The departure of Yermak, 54, comes at a perilous time for Kyiv as it faces U.S. pressure to make concessions to Moscow to end its war on his country and lacks the soldiers or weapons to push Russian forces back.

Of course Freeland met with Yermak and Zelensky recently, she turns up like a bad penny, probably tipping them off about the raid.

It has been 1,370 days since President Zelensky told the world "We are still here," and Canada has stood with Ukraine every day since. On Tuesday I had the honor of standing with President Zelensky once again in Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/ArfjooWahN

— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) November 27, 2025

President Trump’s attempt to create an unstoppable momentum towards peace in Ukraine appears to have run into a dead end after the Kremlin signalled that it was in no mood to make concessions.

Despite days of whirlwind diplomacy involving American, European, Russian and Ukrainian officials, Moscow has shown no sign that it is interested in any kind of deal that does not meet all of its demands.

In light of actual progress toward a peace proposal in the Russo-Ukrainian War, warmongers scrambled to hurl their favorite smear at the Trump administration. According to them, anything less than a total crushing victory over Russia is no different than British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany in 1938 and paves the way for further Russian aggression.

For Europe’s leaders, the weekend began with another threat to their relevance, courtesy of President Trump. Would the Americans really force Ukraine to capitulate, embrace President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and undermine NATO — all without even bothering to consult with them?

By Tuesday, the latest diplomatic emergency seemed to have been averted for the moment, if hardly resolved, thanks to a how-to-handle-Trump playbook that European leaders have honed over a year of similar episodes.

The Europeans — led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany — resisted the urge to lash out at Mr. Trump’s 28-point peace plan despite its pro-Russia tilt. Instead, they embraced the plan publicly to keep the president happy, even as they insisted that it was only a starting point for discussions.

They want to meddle to seem important. No thanks.

The Trump administration’s Army secretary sat down Tuesday with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi to present a slimmed-down plan to end Moscow’s 33-month-old invasion of Ukraine.

Dan Driscoll arrived in the Middle East after representatives from Washington and Kyiv hammered out a revised framework to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

“The Ukrainians have agreed to the peace deal,” a US official said. “There are some minor details to be sorted out but they have agreed to a peace deal.”

Updated peace plan could be a deal Ukraine will take – eventually

Donald Trump wants a peace deal in Ukraine very badly.

Kyiv wants peace even more, just not at any cost.

That’s why when the US began pushing it to agree to a deal by Thanksgiving on what looked close to surrender terms, Ukraine pushed back.

It scrambled senior officials to talks in Geneva and all of Sunday we saw delegates from the US and Ukraine shuttling back and forth between the two main venues in black limousines with darkened windows.

Things are very bad in Ukraine right now. The former spokeswoman for Ukraine’s clearly overmatched comedian leader says things could get a lot worse if Ukraine’s government walks away from peace this time.

“Every subsequent deal for Ukraine will only be worse — because we are losing. We are losing people, territory, and the economy,” Iuliia Mendel, press secretary for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from 2019 to 2021, wrote in an X post this weekend as negotiators went back and forth in marathon peace talks.