Vladimir Putin is requiring Ukraine to give up Donbas from all over Donbas to renounce the ambitions of joining NATO, remain neutral and keep the western troops abroad, three sources familiar with Kremlin’s high -level thinking told Reuters.
The Russian President met Donald Trump in Alaska last Friday for the first Russian-eu-end summit in more than four years and spent almost the entire meeting to closed doors of three hours discussing what an agreement on Ukraine would look like, according to sources who asked for anonymity to discuss delicate issues.
Speaking later with Trump, Putin said the meeting would open the way to peace in Ukraine – but none of the leaders gave details about what they argued.
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In the report based on more detailed Russian sources so far about the offer of Putin in the summit, the Reuters He managed to outline the contours of what Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace agreement to end a war that killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people.
Essentially, the Russian sources said, Putin made concessions of the territorial demands he established in June 2024, which demanded that Kiev would give up all the four provinces that Moscow claims as part of Russia: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – which form Donbas – besides Kerson and Zaporizehzia in the South.
Kiev rejected these terms as being equivalent to surrender.
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In his new proposal, the Russian President maintained his requirement to that Ukraine completely removes from the parts of Donbas that still controlsaccording to the three sources. In return, however, Moscow would interrupt the current front lines in Zaporizehzia and Kherson, they added.
Russia controls about 88% of Donbas and 73% from Zaporizehzia and Kherson, according to US estimates and open source data.
Russia is also willing to deliver the small parts of the regions of Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk From Ukraine that controls as part of a possible agreement, the sources said.
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Putin is also maintaining his previous requirements that the Ukraine gives up on your ambitions in NATO and a legally binding promise of the US military alliance that will no longer expand to the east, as well as boundaries to the Ukrainian army and an agreement that no western troops will be sent to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, sources said.
However, both sides remain distant, more than three years after Putin ordered thousands of Russian soldiers to enter Ukraine in a large -scale invasion that followed the annexation of the Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and prolonged combat in the east of the country between separatists supported by Russia and Ukrainian troops.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine made no immediate comments on the proposals.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy repeatedly rejected the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognized Ukrainian lands as part of an agreement and said the Donbas industrial region serves as a fortress that prevents Russian advances towards Ukraine.
“If we are talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we can’t do that,” he told reporters in comments released by Kiev on Thursday. “It’s a matter of survival of our country, involving the strongest defensive lines.”
Adherence to NATO, in turn, is a strategic objective enshrined in the constitution of the country and that Kiev sees as his most reliable security guarantee. Zelenskiy said it is not up to Russia to decide on joining the alliance.
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The White House and NATO did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the Russian proposals.
Political scientist Samuel Charap, president of the Russian Department of Policy and Eurasia da Rand, a US -based global policy study center, said any requirement for Ukraine to withdraw from Donbas remain an obstacle to Kiev, both political and strategically.
“Opening to ‘peace’ in categorically unacceptable terms to the other side could be more performance for Trump than a sign of a true disposition to commitment,” he added. “The only way to test this proposition is to start a serious process at the level of work to get these details right.”
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Trump: Putin wants to see the end of the conflict
Currently, Russian forces control one fifth of Ukraine, an area approximately the size of the American state of Ohio, according to estimates from the US and open source maps.
The three sources near Kremlin said the summit meeting in the city of Anchorage, Alaska, had inaugurated the best chance of peace since the beginning of the war, because there have been specific discussions about Russia’s terms and Putin has shown a willingness to give in.
“Putin is ready for peace – to commitment. This is the message that was conveyed to Trump,” said one of the people.
The sources warned that it was not clear to Moscow if Ukraine would be prepared to give the rest of Donbas and that if he did not, the war would continue. It was also unclear whether or not the United States would recognize the Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia, they added.
A fourth source said that while economic issues were secondary to Putin, he understood Russia’s economic vulnerability and the scale of the effort needed to go far in Ukraine.
Trump said he wants to end the “bloodbath” of the war and be remembered as a “peacemaker president.” He said on Monday that he had begun to organize a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian leaders to be followed by a trilateral summit with the US President.
“I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see this over,” Trump said alongside Zelenskiy in the Oval Hall. “I feel confident that we will solve the problem.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Putin was prepared to meet Zelenskiy, but that all issues had to be resolved first and that there was a question about Zelenskiy’s authority to sign a peace agreement.
Putin has repeatedly raised doubts about Zelenskiy’s legitimacy, as his mandate should expire in May 2024, but with the war no new presidential election was still held. Kiev says Zelenskiy remains the legitimate president.
The leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany said they are skeptical about the fact that Putin wanted to end the war.
