I said it on Friday, when it was announced that White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner would be flying off to Moscow this week for a sixth meeting with Vladimir Putin in a supposed effort to end the war in Ukraine. What I said was:

“ . . . it seems like a total waste of time, effort, and jet fuel. Because nothing is going to happen until Ukraine has no alternative but to acknowledge that it has been well and truly screwed.”

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Trump’s original behind-the-scenes, 28-point peace proposal had been warmly welcomed by Putin. And why wouldn’t it be? It contained everything that’s been on his list of demands for nearly four years.

But when the leaders of Ukraine and its European allies sounded alarms about the obvious sellout, a new proposal was quickly rolled out in Geneva: a refined and pared-down 19 points, aimed at preventing Russia’s illegal land grab and protecting the future sovereignty and security of Ukraine, with some concessions from both sides. And Putin was no longer happy.

In fact, prior to yesterday’s meeting, Putin said:

“We have no intention of fighting Europe, I’ve said that 100 times. But if Europe wants to fight again and starts, then we are ready for that immediately.” [RFE/RL, December 2, 2025.]

But despite the not-so-veiled threat, the meeting took place at the Kremlin as scheduled. And after five hours — once more utilizing only a Kremlin-provided interpreter and none from the U.S. Embassy — it appeared that Russia had conceded nothing; the U.S. had failed to toughen its stance; and Ukraine and the rest of Europe had once again been sidelined. [Laura Gozzi, BBC, December 2, 2025.]

Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s right-hand advisor on foreign policy matters, said after the meeting that the talks were “useful” but that a “lot of work” still lay ahead. He added:

“We did not discuss particular wordings the Americans prepared, but the essence of the message. Some things suit us. Some things were met with our criticism. We do not see a chance to resolve the Ukraine crisis without territorial issues. To really move forward it is time both for Moscow and Washington to seriously get to work.” [RFE/RL, December 2, 2025.]

None of that was particularly surprising. But an additional comment by Ushakov was unexpected . . . and, to my mind, more than a little alarming. He indicated that, in addition to the 28-point proposal, Russia had received four other documents, and that Russia and the U.S. had agreed not to disclose further details of the talks. [BBC, December 2, 2025.]

What four documents? What further details? What else did Russia and the U.S. agree to behind everyone else’s backs?

What the hell is going on?

Witkoff and Kushner left the Kremlin without comment, and headed directly to the U.S. Embassy. There had earlier been talk of a meeting to be scheduled with Ukrainian President Zelensky in Kyiv (or perhaps elsewhere) following the Moscow session, but as of this writing (midnight EST), I haven’t seen any follow-up on that. At the moment, I’m not feeling optimistic.

As always, though, stay tuned. In this unscripted serial, anything can happen.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/3/25