Russian President Vladimir Putin has met again with Steve Witkoff, special envoy of US President Donald Trump. From the little the cameras showed us of the meeting it appears that the atmosphere was unusually friendly. The discussion was also long, lasting for about three hours.

Yet, at this point, we know little about its content or, more importantly, what progress has been made or not. We do know, from Russia’s Yuri Ushakov, special aide to Putin, that the meeting was, in his words, “constructive” and “useful.” In particular, it has produced closer proximity between the Russian and US positions, not only on Ukraine but also on other issues that have – mostly – not been further specified. With the important exception of the possibility of facilitating direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives.

Clearly, it is too early to draw strong conclusions about the meeting and its results. One thing that seems certain is that it was not a failure. Even if Ushakov’s language was restrained, it did signal that much. Beyond that, however, we can only speculate: One thing we know from the meeting’s context is that Trump has, once again, publicly displayed great dissatisfaction and impatience with Kiev and personally with Ukraine’s leader Vladimir Zelensky. This time, using his own social media site Truth Social, Trump focused on Zelensky’s refusal to accept the loss of Crimea. More broadly, he reminded Zelensky that he has little leverage (“no cards”) and........

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