Putin says there are points he can't agree to in the US proposal to end Russia's war in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday that any deal is still some ways off.

U.S. President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. But the effort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner planned to meet later Thursday with the Ukrainian delegation led by Rustem Umerov following the Americans' discussions with Putin at the Kremlin, but there was no immediate confirmation whether that meeting took place.

The meeting at the Shell Bay Club, a golf property developed by Witkoff in Hallandale Beach, was tentatively set to begin at 5 p.m. EST, according to an official familiar with the logistics. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly because the meeting has not yet been formally announced and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Putin said his five-hour talks Tuesday with Witkoff and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but also “difficult work,” and some proposals were unacceptable.

Speaking to the India Today television channel before he landed Thursday in New Delhi for a state visit, Putin said the American proposals discussed at the Kremlin meeting were based on earlier discussions between Russia and the U.S., including his meeting with Trump in Alaska in August, but also included new elements.

“We had to go through practically every point, which is why it took so much time,” he said. “It was a meaningful, highly specific and substantive conversation. Sometimes we said, ‘Yes, we can discuss this, but with that one we cannot agree.’"

Trump said Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from the marathon session confident that Putin wants to find an end to the war. “Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” he added.

Putin said the initial U.S. 28-point peace proposal was trimmed to 27 points and split into four packages. He refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other officials involved offered details of the talks.

The Russian leader praised Trump’s peace efforts, noting that “achieving consensus among conflicting parties is no easy task.”

“To say now what exactly doesn’t suit us or where we could possibly agree seems premature, since it might disrupt the very mode of operation that President Trump is trying to establish,” Putin said.

He emphasized that Russia will fulfill the goals it set and take all of the eastern Donetsk region. “All this boils down to one thing: Either we take back these territories by force, or eventually Ukrainian troops withdraw,” he said.

European leaders, left on the sidelines by Washington as U.S. officials engage directly with Moscow and Kyiv, have accused Putin of feigning interest in Trump's peace drive.

French President Emmanuel Macron met in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, seeking to involve him in pressuring Russia toward a ceasefire. Xi, whose country has provided strong diplomatic support for Putin, did not say respond to France’s call, but said that “China supports all efforts that work towards peace.”

Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight into Thursday. A missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, wounding six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.

The attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown damaged more than 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes, Vilkul said.

A 6-year-old girl died in the southern city of Kherson after Russian artillery shelling wounded her the previous day, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.

The Kherson Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat for over 40,000 residents, shut down Thursday after Russia pounded it with drones and artillery for several days, he said.

Authorities planned emergency meetings to find alternate sources of heating, he said. Until then, tents were erected across the city where residents could warm up and charge electronic devices.

Russia also struck Odesa with drones, wounding six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.

Overall, Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, officials said.

Meanwhile, in the Russia-occupied part of the Kherson region, two men were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on their vehicle Thursday, Moscow-installed regional leader Vladimir Saldo said. A 68-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, he said.

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embrace each other at the Palam Air Base in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a joint news conference with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greet each other at the Palam Air Base in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose for a photo at the Palam Air Base in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sit inside a limousine after arriving at the Palam Air Base in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Men walk past a billboard with portraits of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, hours before the scheduled arrival of the latter in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo)

This image made from a December 2025 video provided by the Ukrainian Defense Forces shows the heavily-bombed city of Myrnohrad in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. (Ukrainian Defense Forces via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an international forum of civil participation "We Are Together" in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Alexander Shcherbak, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, third right, Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, fourth right, and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Special Presidential Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries Kirill Dmitriev, right, attend talks with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, second left, and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, third, at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Trump administration is making good on a promise to send more water to California farmers in the state’s crop-rich Central Valley.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday announced a new plan for operating the Central Valley Project, a vast system of pumps, dams and canals that direct water southward from the state’s wetter north. It follows an executive order President Donald Trump signed in January calling for more water to flow to farmers, arguing the state was wasting the precious resource in the name of protecting endangered fish species.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said the plan will help the federal government “strengthen California’s water resilience." It takes effect Friday.

But California officials and environmental groups blasted the move, saying sending significantly more water to farmlands could threaten water delivery to the rest of the state and would harm salmon and other fish.

Most of the state’s water is in the north, but most of its people are in the south. The federally-managed Central Valley Project works in tandem with the state-managed State Water Project, which sends water to cities that supply 27 million Californians. The systems transport water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an estuary that provides critical habitat to fish and wildlife including salmon and the delta smelt.

It is important for the two systems to work together, Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said in a statement. She warned the Trump administration’s plan could limit the state's ability to send water to cities and farmers. That is because the state could be required to devote more water to species protection if the federal project sends more to farms.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director at Restore the Delta, said pumping more water out would result in more Delta smelt and juvenile salmon dying from getting stuck in the pumping system, and once the temperature warms, harmful algae blooms will develop that are dangerous to fish, wildlife, pets and people. That could have economic impacts, she said.

"When you destroy water quality and divorce it from land, you are also destroying property values," she said. “Nobody wants to live near a fetid, polluted backwater swamp.”

The Bureau of Reclamation denied the changes would harm the environment or endangered species.

The Central Valley Project primarily sends water to farms, with a much smaller amount going to cities and industrial use. Water from the Central Valley Project irrigates roughly one-third of all California agriculture, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

The Westlands Water District, one of the largest uses of Central Valley Project water, cheered the decision. It “will help ensure that our growers have the water they need to support local communities and the nation’s food supply, while also protecting California’s wildlife," Allison Febbo, general manager, said in a statement.

During Trump's first term, he allowed more water to be directed to the Central Valley, a move Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom fought in court, saying it would push endangered delta smelt, chinook salmon and steelhead trout populations to extinction. The Biden administration changed course, adopting its own water plan in 2024 that environmental groups said was a modest improvement. Newsom didn't immediately comment Thursday on the new decision.

The Republican president renewed his criticism of the state's water policies after the Los Angeles-area fires broke out in January and some fire hydrants ran dry. The Central Valley Project does not supply water to Los Angeles.

Trump dubbed his January executive order “Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California.”

Golden reported from Seattle.

FILE -A sign reading "Farmland Needs Water!" stands along a field in Riverdale, Calif., Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - An aerial view shows Friant Dam which holds back Millerton Lake in Friant, Calif., Friday, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)