Putin Tells U.S. Envoys He Wants ‘Eternal Peace’ After Kremlin Talks

Vladimir Putin said any settlement of the war in Ukraine should last indefinitely, using the phrase “eternal peace” as he opened Thursday’s Kremlin meeting with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

“As for the durability of peace, its reliability and permanence, we would also like it to be an eternal peace,” Putin said, according to the official interpreter.

The American negotiators had arrived from Abu Dhabi, where trilateral talks among Russia, the United States and Ukraine were held on Nov. 10-11. Putin asked them to convey his thanks to President Donald Trump for organizing those contacts.

Foreign Troops and Grey Zones

The peace language came with conditions. Putin said the presence of any foreign forces on Ukrainian territory was “absolutely unacceptable” because, in Moscow’s view, it would threaten Russia’s national security.

“Any foreign forces deployed there will be considered legitimate targets for the Russian Armed Forces,” he said, according to TASS. He added that if European troops entered Ukraine after a settlement, “the war would immediately resume.”

He also argued that so-called “grey zones” would make any agreement unstable. “For Russia, there is only one line of demarcation with Ukraine — the state border,” Putin said. He asked Washington to work with European governments and help them decide “what they want — peace or war.” U.S. envoys had already asked Moscow to submit a new European security proposal.

Humanitarian Mission in Kostiantynivka

Putin proposed a humanitarian mission to evacuate civilians from Kostiantynivka, in Donetsk, modeled on an earlier operation in Oleshky, in the occupied Kherson region. He thanked First Lady Melania Trump for her role in that earlier effort.

He said about 400 to 500 civilians remained in the city and that Russia would need five days to clear mines around it. He claimed Russia controlled Kostiantynivka and was ready to guarantee the mission’s safety; if Kyiv believed it held the city, he said, Ukraine should provide security from its side. That claim of Russian control has not been independently verified.

Envoys Report Momentum After Abu Dhabi

Witkoff called Thursday’s session an important meeting and said the trilateral format had been reset. He said a forthcoming prisoner exchange “will be the largest one ever done” and that European officials had been briefed even though they were not at the table in Abu Dhabi. He said he would report back to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kushner said there had been “a big change with the Europeans” and “very strong momentum.” He said Washington had begun discussing a European security architecture with them and, on territorial issues, told Putin, “We’ll go through them and we’ll find solutions together.”

No agreement to end the war was announced in the opening exchanges.