By Ray McGovern, December 2, 2025
President Putin’s chief aide on Ukraine, Yury Ushakov, gave the official readout (as has been his task over the past five years). He said the meeting was “very useful, constructive, and very informative.”
Ushakov added that the two sides discussed several options, including territorial issues, and agreed to continue contacts. The meeting lasted five hours, and “there was an opportunity to thoroughly discuss the prospects for further joint work to achieve a long-term peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.” [Emphasis added.]
“We did not discuss specific formulations, specific American proposals, but discussed the very essence of what is embedded in these American documents. I cannot disclose the key points of these documents. They all relate to a long-term peaceful settlement of the crisis in Ukraine.” [Emphasis added.]
Ushakov said that there is no compromise plan for Ukraine yet; and that some American ideas are acceptable to Russia, some not.
There are lots of factors – besides President Trump’s mercurial nature – requiring the Kremlin to be super-cautious about betrayal (as well as zig-zags) in dealing with Washington. What follows is one instructive example that is not widely known:
Fool Me Once
Yury Ushakov has every reason to exercise extreme care as he advises Putin on the U.S. and on its senior functionaries. Russian ambassador to the U.S. from 1998 to 2008 and now aide to Putin since 2012, he had a humiliating experience at a crucial point at the turn of 2021-22. In short, the enthusiasm he expressed in the readout of a Dec. 30, 2021 telephone call between Biden and Putin turned out, in retrospect, to be naïve. (Ushakov publicly rejoiced the following day, New Year’s Eve, over what he believed to be a hopeful sign that the U.S. was finally acknowledging Russia’s security concerns.)
During the Dec. 30 call, Biden told Putin “Washington has no intention to deploy offensive strike weapons in Ukraine.” But the Biden administrastion reneged. When Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary Blinken met in Geneva on Jan. 21, 2022, Lavrov asked Blinken what happened to Biden’s undertaking not to put offensive missiles in Ukraine. Lavrov got a “forget-about-it” from Blinken.
Biden and Putin talked again on Feb 12, 2022. That readout stated “The U.S. gave no meaning response” regarding Biden’s assurance of six weeks prior about missiles in Ukraine. As for the chastened Ushakov, it will surely be back to “Trust but Verify.”
Yesterday, Ushakov’s readout rejected the notion that the U.S. and Russia are farther apart on Ukraine. “But there is still a lot of work to be done both in Washington and in Moscow. It has been agreed, and contacts will continue.” Another summit meeting “depends on the progress to be made on this path: We will work hard and persistently through assistants, Foreign Ministry specialists.”
No Lavrov?
The far more important question is why No Rubio? Rubio appears to have been taken off the Ukraine account, as hinted here. A good omen for peace, in my view, for Uraine – if not for Venezuela. Lavrov, incidentally, was hosting China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi yesterday for what must have been a far less difficult conversation.
Last, but not least, Russian Direct Investment Fund chief Dmitriev and “businessman and investor Jared Kushner” were at the table, discussing “the enormous prospects for future economic cooperation between the two countries.”
Will Witkoff and Son Go Directly Home?
Or will they stop for a Guinness in Dublin and brief Zelensky there, as recent rumors suggest. It seems clear that the Russians were given the impression that Witkoff would not dignify the obstinate Zelensky by doing him the courtesy of an immediate briefing on yesterday’s talks.
Here’s TASS:
“The American delegation said that after today’s meeting it would go back to the United States: They did not promise us that they would go to Kiev, but promised that they would return home.
“The colleagues will return home. They will discuss the issues that were raised today. And then, I believe, they will contact us by phone, and we will continue the discussion.”