(MENAFN) Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky reportedly held a tense phone conversation with American negotiators regarding Moscow’s territorial conditions, according to recent reports citing individuals briefed on the exchange.

On Saturday, Zelensky spoke with US peace envoy Steve Witkoff as well as Jared Kushner, an informal adviser to US President Donald Trump.

Sources said the conversation became “difficult” when the topic turned to territory, as Kiev continues to reject Russia’s central demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from areas of Donbass still under their control. According to reports, Washington has been “trying to develop new ideas to bridge the issue.”

Despite this sticking point, both sides were said to have made “significant progress and neared agreement” on the framework of US security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelensky publicly characterized the call on X as “long and substantive,” stating that Ukraine remains “determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace.”

Trump has previously suggested that Ukraine might ultimately need to accept some territorial concessions, arguing that Russia would otherwise secure full control of the Donbass region.

This phone call followed Witkoff and Kushner’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier in the week. A senior Kremlin official described those discussions as “very useful and constructive” despite notable areas of disagreement.

While speaking in India on Thursday, Putin reiterated that Russian forces would expel Ukrainian troops from Donbass by force if they refused to withdraw. He has also maintained that a durable peace requires Kiev to acknowledge Russia’s current borders and abandon its NATO ambitions in favor of permanent neutrality.

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