Vladimir Putin has accused Europe of standing in the way of US efforts to end the war in Ukraine, as he began key talks in the Kremlin with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Witkoff, on his sixth trip to Moscow this year, is to present Putin with an updated version of a US peace proposal drafted with input from a senior Russian official and reworked to make it more acceptable to Kyiv.

The two Trump allies arrived in Moscow on Tuesday after meeting Ukrainian officials at the weekend in Florida to discuss revisions to the original 28-point peace plan, which overwhelmingly favoured Moscow.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on a diplomatic push to rally support among European capitals that have backed changes to the original plan, said in Paris that the updated version of the proposal “looks better” but emphasised it was “not over yet”.

Moments before the closed-door meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, Putin made a series of hard-edged remarks. Speaking to reporters at the Kremlin, he accused European governments of sabotaging the peace process and said that “European demands” on ending the war in Ukraine were “not acceptable to Russia”.

“Europe is preventing the US administration from achieving peace on Ukraine,” Putin said, adding: “Russia does not intend to fight Europe, but if Europe starts, we are ready right now.”

Putin did not clarify which European demands he found unacceptable.

Zelenskyy has objected, in particular, to provisions in the 28-point plan that would have required Ukraine to surrender territory in the east that it currently controls, and impose limits on the size of its military. He has also demanded clear, enforceable security guarantees from the west to prevent a future Russian invasion.

Putin, for his part, has said that only the original US proposal could serve as a basis for further talks, while also stating that it required significant revisions.

Despite intense shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks, which has produced several revisions to the US peace plan, bridging the gap remains difficult: Russia’s maximalist demands in effect require Ukraine’s capitulation.

Most analysts believe the Kremlin is unlikely to accept substantial changes to the original document, casting doubt on the prospects of real progress in the talks.

But Putin’s comments appeared aimed at driving a wedge between Washington and European capitals. European officials have had some success in pushing back against the original US plan, though it remains unclear to what extent Washington is taking their concerns into account.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, earlier on Tuesday said Putin and Witkoff would discuss the “understandings” reached recently between Washington and Kyiv, adding that Russia remained open to talks but would insist on achieving the goals of its “special operation”.

Those goals amount to sweeping demands that would severely erode Ukraine’s sovereignty, including deep cuts to its armed forces, a ban on western military assistance, far-reaching limits on political independence, and the handover of Ukrainian-controlled territory in the east of the country.

On the eve of the talks with the US delegation in Moscow, Putin claimed Russian forces had taken control of the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine.

Dressed in military fatigues during a visit to a command centre on Monday evening, the Russian president hailed what he called the “important” capture of Pokrovsk, once a major logistical hub for the Ukrainian army, though Ukrainian officials later disputed the claim.

Russia has spent more than a year attempting to seize the frontline hub, seen as a gateway to Donetsk, and has suffered heavy losses in the process.

Russian forces roll ‘Mad Max-style’ into battered Pokrovsk – video

Ukrainian analysts and military bloggers have acknowledged that Russia now holds most of Pokrovsk, with battlefield maps showing its forces largely in control.

Buoyed up by recent gains at the front, Putin has indicated in recent weeks that the Russian military was prepared to keep fighting if diplomacy faltered, repeatedly emphasising that his forces remained on the offensive on the battlefield.

The Russian leader also on Tuesday threatened retaliation against Ukraine’s ports and shipping after Kyiv in recent days struck several vessels in Russia’s so-called shadow fleet in the Black Sea.

The Russian president threatened that Moscow would “step up strikes on Ukrainian ports and on any ships entering them” in response to attacks on Russian tankers, which he described as “piracy”.

Echoing the Kremlin, Russian state media on Tuesday struck a confident tone before the US visit. Komsomolskaya Pravda, often described as “Putin’s favourite newspaper”, wrote that the president’s remarks suggested “more and more Ukrainian territory is coming under our control – and that next time Russia’s terms may be tougher”.

The paper implied that Moscow viewed the latest US-Ukrainian talks as a dead end, claiming Kyiv was refusing to capitulate: “The US has tried for the third time in the past 10 days to pressure Ukraine, and Washington has once again failed,” it wrote.