Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded three conditions to achieving peace with Ukraine — he wants it to give up all of the eastern Donbas region, give up its NATO ambitions and remain neutral and keep Western forces out of the war-torn country, according to a report.
The Russian strongman outlined what it would take to end the more than three-year war during his high-stakes summit meeting in Alaska with President Trump last week, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.
Russian sources insisted to Reuters that Putin has cut down on his territorial demands from June 2024 that included four provinces that Moscow believes is part of their country: Donetsk and Luhansk, which encompasses the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
Now, Russia wants Ukraine to cede the parts of the Donbas it still controls and in return would stop fighting in the other two areas, the Russian sources said.
Currently, Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, US estimates and open-source data indicate.
Moscow is also willing to give Ukraine a small part of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions controlled by Russia as part of a possible agreement, according to the sources.
Putin is still sticking by his demand that Ukraine stop its bid to join NATO and a legally binding pledge from the alliance that it won’t move more eastwards.
He also remains steadfast on limits on the Ukrainian army and no boots on the ground from Western nations will be used as a peacekeeping force, the sources said.
“Putin is ready for peace — for compromise,” one of the sources said. “That is the message that was conveyed to Trump.”
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Zelensky has said his country would not hand over internationally recognized Ukrainian land to Russia while asserting the Donbas region acts as a fortress stopping Russia from invading deeper into Ukraine.
“If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” he said Thursday. “It is a matter of our country’s survival, involving the strongest defensive lines.”
Meanwhile, he’s argued the country’s NATO ambitions, which are enshrined in its constitution, shouldn’t be determined by Russia.
It appears for now Putin and Zelensky won’t be communicating face-to-face with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov telling NBC News no meeting is planned between the two rivals.
“Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskyy when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all,” he told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker.
Lavrov accused Ukraine of stalling any possible peace deal.
“President Putin said clearly that he is ready to meet provided this meeting is really going to have an agenda, presidential agenda,” he added.
Trump on Friday threatened “massive” sanctions and tariffs if Putin and Zelensky failed to set up a meeting to discuss peace negotiations.
“I’ll see whose fault it is. If there are reasons why, I would understand that,” Trump said.
“I know exactly what I’m doing. We’re going to see whether or not they have a meeting — that will be interesting to see.”
Zelensky has said he is ready for a meeting with his adversary and accused Putin of holding up talks.
As attempts at diplomacy plays out, the two sides have continued the fighting with Ukrainian forces destroying a critical part of Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline overnight.
The key bombing comes as Russia has ramped up its attacks since the meeting between Putin and Trump.
