Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to halt the invasion of Ukraine along the current front line as part of efforts to reach a peace deal with US President Donald Trump, sources familiar with the talks said.
Putin said during a meeting with Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, earlier this month in St. Petersburg that Moscow could give up its claims to territories in four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that remain under Kiev's control, three people confirmed.
The United States, meanwhile, has presented ideas for a possible deal that would include recognition of Russian rule over the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, as well as tacit acceptance of the Kremlin's de facto control over parts of the four Ukrainian regions it currently holds.
This is the first time since the start of the war that Putin has formally signaled the possibility of backing down from maximalist demands as a condition for ending the invasion.
However, European officials familiar with the US initiatives warn that Putin could use this apparent concession as bait to get Trump to accept other Russian demands and impose them on Ukraine as a fait accompli.
"There is now a lot of pressure on Kiev to give up certain things so that Trump can declare victory," said one European official.
Ukrainian officials were due to meet with European and American counterparts in London on Wednesday to discuss the latest proposals. But Vitkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have both cancelled their attendance, according to US and European officials. However, Trump's envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is expected to attend. A Kremlin foreign policy adviser said on Tuesday that Vitkoff would visit Moscow later this week, Russian news agencies reported.
"Intensive work is underway. We are talking with the Americans. The work is difficult and requires a lot of time, so it is difficult to expect quick results, and the negotiations cannot be conducted publicly," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Financial Times (FT).
Trump tweeted on Sunday that he hoped Ukraine and Russia would "reach a deal this week" and then "start doing business with the booming United States of America and make a fortune!"
The United States outlined proposals for a possible framework for a deal at a meeting in Paris with European and Ukrainian officials last week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he had not received a concrete proposal from Trump with clearly defined steps to end the war. However, he said that once a ceasefire is reached, he would be ready for direct talks with Putin.
"There are signals, ideas, discussions, but this is not an official proposal," Zelensky said. If such a proposal arrives, he added, "we will respond."
Senior Ukrainian officials told the FT they were open to some of the ideas put forward by Trump and his team, but did not specify which ones. The US proposals include sending a European peacekeeping force to Ukraine, as well as a separate, non-NATO military force to monitor a ceasefire along a demilitarized zone that would stretch along the entire 1.000-kilometer front line.
These forces, together with the Ukrainian and Russian armies, would monitor the ceasefire on their sides of the so-called line of contact.
As part of a possible deal, Ukraine would commit not to forcibly reclaim territories occupied by Russia, while Russia would agree to halt its slow advance.
It is unclear whether Trump has asked Ukraine to formally recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. However, Zelensky reiterated his position on the Black Sea peninsula on Tuesday, saying: "Ukraine will not recognize the occupation of Crimea. This is our territory, the territory of the Ukrainian people, there is nothing to discuss there."
Russia has already rejected some American proposals, including the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine.
However, sources familiar with the matter say that Putin might be willing to drop his previous demand for full control over four Ukrainian frontline regions, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, if the US made broader geopolitical concessions to Moscow, such as recognizing control over Crimea and guarantees that Ukraine would not join NATO.
Although Putin introduced constitutional changes in 2020 that prohibit Russia from giving up territorial claims, Konstantin Remchukov, editor of a pro-Russian newspaper, wrote in a column on Sunday that Moscow could end the fighting when it expels Ukrainian forces from Kursk, a Russian region that Kiev partially took over last year but which the Kremlin said on Saturday was now "99,5 percent" under its control.
"When they free up the remaining half percent, then the troops can stop wherever they are when the news reaches them," Remchukov wrote in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
"Trump is believed to understand this, thanks to Witkoff. And he hopes to have it all happen by April 30, so he can proudly declare that he has fulfilled his peacekeeping mission in the first 100 days of his presidency."
Putin declared the annexation of four southeastern Ukrainian regions at a Kremlin ceremony in September 2022, although Russia did not fully control any of them at the time. Russia still does not fully control all four, although it has held the regional centers of Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014, following a covert invasion with the help of local proxy forces.
Although Russia withdrew from some of the occupied territories in the fall of 2022, Putin said last year that he would not accept any peace deal unless Ukrainian troops withdrew from the front line and Russia was given full control over all four areas, including the city of Zaporozhye, an industrial center of 700.000 that Russia has never held but regularly attacks.
Previous Russian demands for a peace agreement included: Ukraine's obligation to remain neutral and abandon aspirations for NATO membership, recognition of Russian authority over annexed territories, lifting of Western sanctions, and a reduction in the presence of NATO forces in member states near the border with Russia.
A US State Department spokesman said he could not comment on the "substance of the negotiations".
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