Russia is ready to launch peace negotiations with Ukraine “without conditions,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told US envoy Steve Whitkov during their meeting on Friday, according to Kremlin.

“During yesterday’s talks with Trump’s envoy, Steve Whitkov, Vladimir Putin reiterated that Russia is ready to repeat negotiations with Ukraine without any condition,” said Kremlin spokesman Dimitri

Whitkov met Putin for three hours in Moscow on Friday to discuss the American plan to end the war in Ukraine. Trump said the two sides are “very close to an agreement”, despite the obvious differences in their positions.

At the same time, in an indication that he is stepping up the pressures for the two sides to sit on the negotiating table, Donald Trump, expressing his frustration over recent Russian missile attacks in areas of civilians, questioned whether Putin was honest for him. At the same time, in the same post, he threatened that secondary sanctions may be imposed on Russia in response.

“There is no reason for Putin to launch rockets into residential areas, cities and villages in recent days. This makes me think that it may not want to stop the war, “Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform.

“Is it just delayed, and should be treated differently, through ‘banking’ measures or ‘secondary penalties’? Too many people die !!! “, wrote Trump.

Putin: We got back the kursk

Earlier, the Russian president had reported that the Russian forces had recaptured the Kursk area after a Moscow announcement that the Ukrainian forces had been expelled from the last village that were under their control.

For the first time, Russia also confirmed that North Korean soldiers are fighting on the side of the Russian forces in Kursk, with the Chief of the General Staff praising their “heroism” at their contribution to the expulsion of the Ukrainians.

However, Kiev denied that his forces were expelled from Kursk and stressed that they were still operating in the Belgorod region, another Russian area bordering Ukraine.

The Ukrainian forces had occupied part of Kursk in August last year in a surprise invasion that caused embarrassment in Moscow. The Russian forces, later reinforced by North Korean troops, have since been trying to recapture the area.

Speaking in a period of intense diplomatic efforts by the Trump government to end the conflict, Putin said that the expulsion of Ukrainian forces from Russian territory paves the way for Russia’s further success in Ukraine.

“The adventure of the Kiev regime has failed fully,” he said in a video released by the Kremlin, which appears to be referring to the Chief of Staff, Valeri Gerasimov.

Gerasimov informed Putin that the last occupied village in the Kursk region, Gornal, was “liberated from Ukrainian units” on Saturday.

“This is how the defeat of the armed Ukrainian forces that had invaded the Kursk region,” Grasimov added.

The Ukrainian General Staff, in a statement later on the Telegram, said its forces were still operating in some areas of Kursk.

Ukraine also denied Girassimov’s claim that all Ukrainian “sabotage groups” have been “eliminated” in the Belgorod region, where Kiev had launched an invasion last month.

At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Armed Forces are now helping the local Kursk authorities restore “peace” and remove the mines placed in the area.