Putin tells US envoy that Russia wants “eternal peace”

Vladimir Putin said that any settlement regarding the war in Ukraine should be permanent, using the phrase “eternal peace” when he opened the meeting at the Kremlin with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on November 12.

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

The American negotiators had travelled from Abu Dhabi, where trilateral talks between Russia, the United States, and Ukraine had taken place on November 10 and 11. Putin asked them to convey his thanks to President Donald Trump for organizing these contacts.

Foreign troops and grey areas

The peace rhetoric was conditional. Putin said the presence of foreign armed forces on Ukrainian territory was “absolutely unacceptable” because, from Moscow’s perspective, it would threaten Russia’s national security.

“All foreign forces stationed there will be considered legitimate targets of the Russian armed forces,” he said, according to TASS. If European troops were to invade Ukraine after an agreement, “the war would start again immediately,” he added.

He also argued that so-called “grey areas” would destabilize any agreement. “For Russia, there is only one demarcation line with Ukraine – the state border,” Putin said. He asked Washington to cooperate with European governments and help them decide “what they want – peace or war.” US envoys had already asked them to urge Moscow to submit a new proposal on European security.

Humanitarian mission in Kostiantynivka

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

He said there were still about 400 to 500 civilians in the town and that Russia needed five days to clear the surrounding area of mines. He claimed that Russia controlled Kostyantynivka and was prepared to guarantee the mission’s safety; if Kyiv believed it could hold the town, then Ukraine should, in his words, provide security from its side. The claim that Russia controlled the town was not independently verified.

Envoys report progress to Abu Dhabi

Witkoff described the meeting as important and said the trilateral format had been re-established. An upcoming prisoner exchange “will be the largest ever,” he said. European officials had been informed, even though they were not at the negotiating table in Abu Dhabi. He said he would report back to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kushner said there had been “a major shift among the Europeans” and “very strong momentum.” Washington had begun discussing a European security architecture with them. Regarding territorial issues, he told Putin: “We will go through them and find solutions together.”

However, no agreement to end the war was announced during the initial exchanges.

yogaesoteric
November 14, 2026