Russian leader Vladimir Putin told US negotiators during a meeting in Moscow that Russian forces would capture Donbas within several months, but Jared Kushner pushed back on his claim, The New York Times reports.

Axar.az informs, citing RBC-Ukraine, that according to the media outlet, when US President Donald Trump's envoys met with Putin at the Kremlin in early September, the Russian leader appeared confident.

Putin told the US envoys that Russian forces would finally capture all of Ukraine's Donbas within several months.

He also claimed that Russia was prepared to launch powerful strikes on Ukraine's energy system, creating the conditions for a difficult winter.

Kushner, however, pushed back, reminding Putin that he had made the same claim a year earlier. He questioned whether they would return a year later only to hear the same prediction again and suggested there was no reason to waste another year.

The NYT notes that this exchange reflects the complexity of the situation that has emerged after more than a year and a half of Trump's attempts to end Russia's war against Ukraine.