Vladimir Putin has said the outlines of a draft peace plan discussed by the US and Ukraine could serve as the basis for future talks to end the war – but insisted Ukraine would have to surrender territory for any deal to be possible.
“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said, noting that the version of the plan discussed by Washington and Kiev in Geneva was shared with Moscow.
“We see that the American side takes into account our position in some areas,” he said. “But on other points, we clearly need to sit down and talk.”
The Russian president’s uncompromising comments – in which he again described Volodymyr Zelensky as “illegitimate” – suggested that, despite the White House’s optimism, there is little sign of movement on the core issues needed to end the war.
Speaking to journalists during a working visit to Kyrgyzstan, Putin said Russia would stop its offensive only if Ukrainian forces withdraw from unspecified areas currently under Kiev’s control. “If Ukrainian troops leave the areas they occupy, we will stop fighting,” he said. “If they don’t do that, we will achieve our goals militarily.”
He also reiterated his claim that Ukraine’s leadership was “illegitimate”, arguing that this made it legally impossible to sign a binding agreement with Kyiv and that any future agreement would require widespread international recognition.
Putin confirmed that the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, would visit Russia early next week, and rejected allegations that Witkoff had shown bias towards Moscow during peace discussions, calling them “nonsense”.
Witkoff, a longtime Trump business associate and property developer, has faced criticism in Europe and the US after a leaked phone call revealed he advised a senior Kremlin aide on how Putin should handle negotiations with Trump.
Russia’s recent negotiating tactics echo those it has adopted since Trump’s re-election: the Kremlin signals a willingness to explore potential peace agreements, while showing no inclination to back down from its maximalist demands – most of which are considered unacceptable in Kiev and tantamount to capitulation.
Tatiana Stanovaya, an independent Russian political analyst, wrote on X: “I don’t see anything at the moment that would force Putin to recalibrate his goals or abandon his core demands.
He said, “Putin feels more confident than ever about the battlefield situation and is confident that he can wait until Kiev finally accepts that it cannot win and that it must negotiate on Russia’s well-known terms.”
Many of those conditions appeared in the original 28-point plan developed by US and Russian officials and leaked last week.
They would require Ukraine to voluntarily give up territory that Moscow has failed to seize militarily. Kiev would also be expected to accept a reduction or freeze in US military aid, while any future deployment of Western troops to Ukraine – including those envisioned under the Franco-British “alliance of the willing” – would be explicitly banned.
Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said that the Ukrainian president would not agree to cede land to Russia in exchange for peace.
He told the American magazine The Atlantic, “As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us to give up the territory. He will not sign the territory.”
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