US envoy says Putin open to ‘permanent peace’ in Ukraine as Lavrov stresses tough talks ahead
WASHINGTON / MOSCOW — Hopes for a potential breakthrough in the war in Ukraine have emerged, as US President Donald Trump’s special envoy said Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to a “permanent peace” deal. However, Russian officials have stressed that key disagreements with the United States remain, underscoring the complexity of reaching a lasting settlement.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, revealed in a televised interview on Monday that his recent meeting with Putin in Saint Petersburg — their third since Trump returned to office — was “compelling” and included two senior Kremlin advisers, Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev.
“Putin’s request is to get to a permanent peace here,” Witkoff told Fox News, suggesting that a broader agreement beyond a simple ceasefire might be within reach. “I think we might be on the verge of something very, very important for the world at large.”
Alongside the peace talks, Witkoff noted that economic cooperation was on the table, hinting at commercial deals between the US and Russia that could help stabilize the region and reshape bilateral relations.
Yet despite the optimistic tone from the US side, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered a more guarded perspective in an interview published Tuesday by Kommersant. He acknowledged that discussions with Washington were ongoing but described them as difficult.
“It is not easy to agree the key components of a settlement. They are being discussed,” Lavrov said. “We are well aware of what a mutually beneficial deal looks like — and what a deal looks like that could lead us into another trap.”
Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s core demands, including Ukraine formally abandoning its NATO aspirations and withdrawing its military from four regions claimed by Russia. He emphasized that these territories, including Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, were non-negotiable from the Kremlin’s perspective due to the “rights of the people who live on these lands.”
While praising Trump’s “common sense” and his remarks blaming NATO expansion for fueling the conflict, Lavrov underscored that Russia would never allow itself to become dependent on the West again — economically, militarily, or technologically. He added that the era of globalization had been effectively dismantled by sanctions imposed by the previous US administration under President Joe Biden.
The Kremlin also tempered expectations, stating over the weekend that it was “too early” to anticipate results from any renewed diplomatic engagement with Washington.
The war in Ukraine, now entering its fourth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, has killed tens of thousands and devastated wide areas of the country. Western leaders have framed Russia’s actions as a neo-imperialist land grab, while Putin has cast the conflict as part of a larger struggle against a declining Western order encroaching on Russia’s historical sphere of influence.
