Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump to end the war in Ukraine could serve as the basis for a future agreement, but there is no final version yet. At the same time, he also expressed his willingness to negotiate.
Putin said at a press conference after the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday: “Overall, we agreed that this could serve as the basis for future agreements. But it would be impolite to talk about any final version now. There is no final version yet.”
The Kremlin confirmed on Wednesday that US President Trump’s special envoy, Steve Wirtzko, is expected to visit Moscow next week and meet with Putin. Trump is continuing to push for a solution to Moscow’s nearly four-year-long invasion of Ukraine. Trump said on Tuesday that his peace plan had made “tremendous progress” over the past week. The initial draft of the plan had angered Ukrainians and Europeans.
Putin said that, as far as he knew, Ukraine and the United States had restructured the 28-point plan into four parts during the Geneva talks, which could serve as the basis for negotiations. The United States and Ukraine, however, stated that the revised plan contained 19 points.
Putin said, “Overall, we see that the US side has taken our position into account, which was discussed both before the Anchorage meeting and after the Alaska meeting. We definitely need to find a place to sit down and seriously discuss some specific issues. We need to express all the problems in diplomatic language.”
Bloomberg reported that on October 14, US special envoy Witkoff gave advice to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov on how Russian leaders should discuss the peace plan with Trump during their phone call. Putin later defended Witkoff, saying he was smart and polite, and defended the conversation between the two aides.
“From all indications, Mr. Witkov was sent to Moscow by President Trump to negotiate with us,” he said. “It would be surprising if he had shouted at us during his meeting with Ushakov.” He also said that Witkov’s move was aimed at reshaping US-Russia relations.
Putin said that the recent sanctions imposed by the United States on major oil-producing countries indicated that the United States was still defending its own interests.
With the arrival of winter, the volume of liquefied natural gas exports from the United States is expected to hit a record high this month, which will help curb natural gas prices in Asia and Europe.
According to Kpler’s vessel tracking and prediction data, it is expected that the United States’ vessel shipments in November will reach 10.7 million tons. The data shows that this is an increase of approximately 40% compared to the same period last year.
Although cold weather will boost the consumption of heating fuel, new supplies may push down natural gas prices in Europe and Asia in the coming months. On Thursday, European natural gas futures prices fell to their lowest level in more than a year, while in Asia, the largest importing region, natural gas prices also dropped to their lowest level in nearly a month.
In the coming years, the advancement of new projects will continue to boost the volume of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports, with production expected to double by the end of this decade.
