Putin is ready to stop the war in Ukraine along the current front line – FT

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has proposed to stop the invasion of Ukraine on the current front line as part of efforts to reach a peace agreement with US President Donald Trump. This was reported by Financial Times with reference to informed sources, reports UNN.

Details

The publication notes that the Russian dictator told Steve Witkoff, Trump's special representative, during a meeting in St. Petersburg earlier this month that Moscow could abandon its claims to the territories of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that remain under Kyiv's control, three of the sources said.

Since then, the US has put forward ideas for a possible settlement that include Washington's recognition of Russia's ownership of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, sources added, as well as at least recognizing the Kremlin's de facto control over parts of the four regions it currently holds.

This proposal is Putin's first official indication since the early months of the war three years ago that Russia may back down from its maximalist demands to end the invasion.

But European officials briefed on US efforts to end the war have warned that Putin is likely using the apparent concession as a lure to force Trump to accept other Russian demands and impose them on Ukraine as a fait accompli.

"There is now a lot of pressure on Kyiv to give up some things so that Trump can declare his victory," one of them said.

Add

The publication recalls that Ukrainian officials are due to meet with European and American officials in London on Wednesday to discuss the latest proposals. However, according to US and European officials, Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have declined to attend the meeting. Trump's special representative to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is still expected to attend. Putin's foreign policy adviser said on Tuesday that Witkoff will visit Moscow later this week, according to Russian news feeds.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary, told the FT: "There is intense work going on. We are negotiating with the Americans. The work is difficult and takes a lot of time, so it is difficult to expect immediate results, and it cannot be done publicly."

Trump wrote on social media on Sunday that he hopes Ukraine and Russia "will strike a deal this week" and then "start doing business with the thriving United States of America and make a fortune!"

The US put forward ideas that the White House hopes could shape the contours of a possible deal at a meeting in Paris last week with European and Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he had not received an offer from Trump outlining specific steps to end the war with Russia. But 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 an official proposal comes, he said, "we will respond."

Senior Ukrainian officials told the FT that they agree with some of the ideas put forward by Trump and his team, without specifying which ones. US proposals include the deployment of a European peacekeeping contingent in Ukraine, as well as separate, non-NATO military forces to help monitor the ceasefire along a demilitarized zone covering the entire front line of more than 1,000 km.

The forces will work jointly with Ukrainian and Russian forces monitoring the truce on both sides of the so-called line of contact.

According to the potential agreement, Ukraine undertakes not to return the territories occupied by Russia by force, while Russia agrees to stop the slow advance of its army.

It is unclear whether Trump asked Ukraine to officially recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. But Zelensky reiterated his position on the Black Sea peninsula on Tuesday, saying that: "Ukraine will not recognize the occupation of Crimea. This is our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine, there is nothing to discuss here."

Russia has also rejected some US proposals, including a NATO military presence in Ukraine.

But people familiar with the situation say Putin is potentially willing to give up his previous demand for full control over the four front-line Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — if the US makes broader geopolitical concessions to Moscow, such as recognizing control over Crimea and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO.

Context

The Financial Times recalls that Putin announced the annexation of four south-eastern Ukrainian regions at a lavish ceremony in the Kremlin in September 2022, although Russia did not fully control any of them at the time. Russia still does not fully control any of the four regions, although it has held the regional capitals of Donetsk and Luhansk since its first covert invasion of eastern Ukraine using local proxy forces in 2014.

Although Russia withdrew from part of the territory it occupied in the autumn of 2022, Putin said last year that he would not accept any peace agreement unless Ukraine withdrew its troops from the front line and gave Russia full control over the four regions, including the city of Zaporizhzhia, a 700,000-strong industrial city that Russia has never held, but regularly attacks.

Russia's previous demands for a peace agreement included a promise from Ukraine to remain neutral and abandon its aspirations to join NATO, recognition of Russian claims to the annexed territories, the lifting of Western sanctions and the reduction of NATO forces in member states close to Russia.

A State Department spokesman said they could not comment on "the substance of the negotiations."