Talks between Russia and the U.S. on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were constructive, but much work remains, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Wednesday.

Putin met U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin in talks that began late Tuesday as part of a renewed push by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal. Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.

Ushakov called the five-hour conversation “rather useful, constructive, rather substantive,” but added that the framework of the U.S. peace proposal was discussed rather than “specific wording.” Asked whether peace was closer or further away after these talks, Ushakov said: “Not further, that’s for sure.”

“But there’s still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow. That’s what’s been agreed upon. And contacts will continue,” the official said.

Putin’s aide also said that “so far, a compromise hasn’t been found” on the issue of territories, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees “no resolution to the crisis.”

“Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed. Some of the wording that was proposed to us doesn’t suit us. So, the work will continue,” Ushakov said.

There were other points of disagreement, although Ushakov did not provide further details. “We could agree on some things, and the president confirmed this to his interlocutors. Other things provoked criticism, and the president also didn’t hide our critical and even negative attitude toward a number of proposals,” he said.

The meeting came days after U.S. officials held talks with a Ukrainian team in Florida and which U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described in cautiously optimistic terms.

At the center of the effort is Trump’s peace plan that became public last month and raised concerns about being tilted heavily toward Moscow. The proposal granted some of the Kremlin’s core demands that Kyiv has rejected as nonstarters, such as Ukraine ceding the entire eastern region of the Donbas to Russia and renouncing its bid to join NATO.

Negotiators have indicated the framework has changed, but it’s not clear how. Ushakov said several iterations of a peace plan were being discussed at the talks. The official refused to go into details, saying only: “At first there was one version, then this version was revised, and instead of one document, a few more appeared.”

On Tuesday, Putin accused Kyiv’s European allies of sabotaging the U.S.-led efforts to end the war.

“They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,” Putin said of the Europeans.

Putin’s accusations appeared to be his latest attempt to sow dissension between Trump and European countries and set the stage for exempting Moscow from blame for any lack of progress.

He accused Europe of amending peace proposals with “demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia,” thus “blocking the entire peace process” and blaming Moscow for it. He also reiterated his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe ― a concern regularly voiced by some European countries.

“But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that,” Putin said.

Russia started the war in 2022 with its full-scale invasion of a sovereign European country, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to support Ukraine financially and militarily, to wean themselves from energy dependence on Russia, and to strengthen their own militaries to deter Moscow from seizing more territory by force.

They worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.

Trump’s peace plan relies on Europe to provide the bulk of the financing and security guarantees for a postwar Ukraine, even though no Europeans appear to have been consulted on the original plan. That’s why European governments have pushed to ensure that peace efforts address their concerns, too.

Coinciding with Witkoff’s trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday he was expecting swift reports from the U.S. envoys in Moscow on whether talks could move forward, after Trump’s initial 28-point plan was whittled down to 20 items in Sunday’s talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Florida.

“The future and the next steps depend on these signals. Such steps will change throughout today, even hour by hour, I believe,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.

“If the signals show fair play with our partners, we then might meet very soon, meet with the American delegation,” he said.

“There is a lot of dialogue, but we need results. Our people are dying every day,” Zelenskyy said. “I am ready … to meet with President Trump. It all depends on today’s talks.”

After months of frustration in trying to stop the fighting, Trump deployed officials to get traction for his peace proposals. Asked about a possible meeting between Putin and Trump, presidential aide Ushakov said it would depend on the progress of the peace effort.

The talks have followed parallel lines so far, with Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials. Zelenskyy said he met Tuesday with the Ukrainian delegation that returned from the negotiations with U.S. representatives in Florida. Rubio said those talks made progress.

Zelenskyy said the Florida talks took as their cue a document that both sides drafted at an earlier meeting in Geneva. The Ukrainian leader said that document was now “finalized,” although he didn’t explain what that meant.

Ukrainian diplomats are working to ensure that European partners are “substantially involved” in decision-making, Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app, and warned about what he said were Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at steering the negotiations.

Zelenskyy met with political leaders and lawmakers in Dublin on his first official visit. Ireland is officially neutral and isn’t a member of NATO but has sent nonlethal military support to Ukraine. More than 100,000 Ukrainians have moved to Ireland since Russia launched its war on Feb. 24, 2022.

It remains unclear how envoys are going to bridge the gap between the two sides on such basic differences as who keeps what territory. European officials say the road to peace will be long.

European leaders want to make their voices heard after being largely sidelined by Washington. They are also working on future security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy is under severe pressure in one of the darkest periods of the war for his country. As well as managing diplomatic pressure, he must find money to keep Ukraine afloat, address a corruption scandal that has reached the top echelons of his government, and keep Russia at bay on the battlefield.

The Kremlin late Monday claimed that Russian forces have captured the key city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Zelenskyy, however, said in Paris that fighting was still ongoing in Pokrovsk on Monday.

Ukraine’s general staff on Tuesday also denied Russia’s claims to have captured Pokrovsk, saying it was a propaganda stunt. The Ukrainian army is readying additional logistic routes to deliver supplies to troops in the area, the Facebook post said.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the next stages of the fragile Gaza ceasefire, while Israel returned the remains of another 15 Palestinians.

The remains of four hostages are still in Gaza after Palestinian militants released the remains of another on Sunday.

The first stage of the ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10 is nearing its end. The next stage calls for the implementation of a governing body for Gaza and the deployment of an international stabilization force. It is not clear where either stands.

Israel ended the previous ceasefire agreement earlier this year after a period of exchanging hostages for Palestinian prisoners. At the time, mediators were unable to bring Hamas and Israel to the table to negotiate a troop withdrawal and a plan for the future governance of Gaza.

For each Israeli hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians — an exchange central to the ceasefire’s first phase. The Gaza Health Ministry said the total number of remains received is now 315.

Only 91 have been identified, the ministry said. Forensic work is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits in Gaza. The ministry posts photos of the remains online in the hope that families will recognize them.

One mother waited at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, wondering whether her missing 15-year-old son was among the new remains returned. He disappeared while on the way to school on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel that started the war.

“Rayyan has been missing for two years. I don’t know his fate, whether he’s still alive or dead,” Shaima Abu Ouda said. She said he vanished near the wall separating Gaza and southern Israel. Her husband and eldest son were killed during the war.

On Sunday, Israel confirmed it had received the remains of Hadar Goldin, a soldier killed in the Gaza Strip in 2014, closing a painful chapter for the country. The 23-year-old was killed two hours after a ceasefire took effect in that year’s war between Israel and Hamas.

His remains had been the only ones left in Gaza predating the current war between Israel and Hamas. A funeral was scheduled for Tuesday.

Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and 251 people were kidnapped.

On Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 69,176. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.

Netanyahu and Kushner discussed the progress and future of the ceasefire, said Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian.

The deal has focused on the first phase of halting the fighting, releasing all hostages and boosting humanitarian aid to Gaza. Details of the second phase haven’t been worked out.

Kushner also was helping to lead negotiations to secure safe passage for 150-200 trapped Hamas militants in exchange for surrendering their weapons after the release of Goldin’s remains, according to someone close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the talks.

Bedrosian did not say where those negotiations were headed.

Hamas has made no comment on a possible exchange for its fighters stuck in the so-called yellow zone of territory controlled by Israeli forces, though it has acknowledged that clashes were taking place there.

Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Umm al-Khair, which was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” was bracing Monday for the arrival of Israeli military bulldozers.

The documentary chronicles villagers’ attempts to survive state-backed demolitions and rampant violence from Israeli settlers.

Residents say Israel has ordered the demolition of 14 structures, including the community center, greenhouse and family homes. A press release from the community said the demolitions could begin Tuesday.

Israel says the structures were built illegally. Residents, determined to stay on their land, say it is impossible to secure permits to build in the West Bank, leaving them little choice but to rebuild their homes following demolitions.

Bimkom, an Israeli rights group that focuses on urban planning, says that between 2016 and 2021 Israel rejected 99% of Palestinian requests for building permits in Area C of the West Bank, where Umm al-Khair is located.

The village was founded in the 1950s by traditionally nomadic people, known as Bedouin, who settled there after being uprooted from the Negev desert during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Two decades later, Umm al-Khair fell under Israeli security control when Israel captured the West Bank.

Settler attacks, residents say, began in the 1980s, after Israel built the settlement of Carmel close to Umm al-Khair.

Earlier this year, an internationally sanctioned Israeli settler shot and killed a community leader, Awdah Hathaleen, as he was standing inside the community center slated for demolition.