Russian President Vladimir Putin has ratcheted up tensions with Europe, warning that if the bloc starts a war with Russia, Moscow is ready.

The two countries are looking to strengthen trade ties and are likely to sign bilateral interdepartmental and business agreements during Putin's visit.

Russia and the U.S. did not reach a compromise on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine after a five-hour Kremlin meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's top envoys, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

The push to bring peace to Ukraine and end Russia's ongoing war against its neighbor continues. Newsweek's live blog is closed.

Putin also claimed that Zelensky’s European allies have pushed for demands that are “absolutely unacceptable."

President Putin warned European powers on Tuesday that if they started a war with Russia then Moscow was ready to fight and that the defeat of European powers would be so absolute that there would be no one left to even negotiate a peace deal.

The Russian leader accused Kyiv’s European allies of trying to undermine peace talks by amending a U.S. peace plan devised with Kremlin input, in remarks ahead of a meeting with White House special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff are meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday to discuss the war in Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that a fall in output in some sectors of the economy was not acceptable, and a transition to balanced growth remained a goal for the government and the central bank.