Reuters: Putin demands that Ukraine abandon Donbas and not join NATO
Putin demands that Ukraine abandon the entire eastern Donbas, not join NATO and not allow Western troops to enter its territory, Reuters reports. In return, Russia is ready to stop the advance of its troops on the front line in the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
Guy Faulconbridge
Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine abandon the entire eastern Donbas region, abandon its ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and prevent Western troops from entering its territory, three sources familiar with the position of the Kremlin's top leadership told Reuters.
The Russian president met with Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday at the first Russia-US summit in more than four years and discussed a possible compromise on Ukraine for almost the entire three hours of the closed meeting, according to sources who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Speaking after the meeting alongside Trump, Putin said he hoped the meeting would pave the way for peace in Ukraine, but neither leader disclosed details of the discussions.
In the most detailed Russian report to date on Putin's proposal at the summit, Reuters was able to outline what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace agreement that would end the conflict that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people.
In fact, according to Russian sources, Putin compromised on the territorial demands he put forward in June 2024, which required Kiev to cede all four regions that Moscow considers part of Russia.: Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which form the Donbass, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in the south.
Kiev rejected these conditions, considering them tantamount to surrender.
According to three sources, in the new proposal, the Russian president stood by his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from those parts of Donbass that it still controls. In return, however, Moscow will stop the advance of its troops on the front line in the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, they added.
According to US estimates and open source data, Russia controls about 88% of the territory of Donbass and 73% of the territory of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
Sources said that Moscow is also ready to transfer small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine, which it controls, as part of a possible agreement.
Putin is also sticking to his previous demands for Ukraine to abandon its ambitions for NATO and for the US-led military alliance to be legally bound not to expand further east, as well as to limit the Ukrainian army and agree that Western troops will not be deployed on Ukrainian territory as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said.
However, the positions of the parties are still far apart, more than three years after Putin ordered the deployment of thousands of Russian troops to Ukraine in a full-scale military operation that followed the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and protracted fighting in the east of the country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine did not comment on the proposal.
Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea of withdrawing from the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine as part of the agreement and stated that the industrial Donbass serves as a fortress holding back Russia's advance into Ukraine.
"If we are talking about a simple withdrawal from the east, then this is impossible," he told reporters in comments published by Kiev on Thursday. "This is a matter of our country's survival, which requires the strongest lines of defense."
Meanwhile, joining NATO is a strategic goal enshrined in the country's constitution, and Kiev considers this to be the most reliable guarantee of security. Zelensky said that the decision to join the alliance does not depend on Russia.
The White House and NATO did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Russian proposals.
Political scientist Samuel Charap, chairman of the committee on Russia and Eurasia at the RAND, an American global policy think tank, said that any demand for Ukraine to withdraw troops from Donbass remains unacceptable for Kiev from both a political and strategic point of view.
"Openness to 'peace' on terms that are categorically unacceptable to the other side may be more of a performance for Trump than a sign of a real willingness to compromise," he added. "The only way to verify this proposal is to start a serious process at the working level to discuss these details."
TRUMP: PUTIN WANTS THIS TO END.
According to US estimates and open source data, Russian troops currently control a fifth of Ukraine's territory, which roughly corresponds to the area of the US state of Ohio.
Three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in Anchorage, Alaska, offered the best chance for peace since the start of the conflict, as concrete negotiations were held on Russia's terms and Putin demonstrated a willingness to make concessions.
"Putin is ready for peace, for compromise. That's exactly what was conveyed to Trump," one of the sources said.
The sources warned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine was ready to cede the rest of Donbas, and that if it did not, fighting would continue. It is also unclear whether the United States recognizes the territories of Ukraine held by Russia, they added.
According to a fourth source, although economic issues are secondary to Putin, he understands Russia's economic vulnerability and the scale of efforts needed to move further into Ukraine.
Trump said he wants to put an end to the "bloodbath" and remain in history as a "peacemaker president." On Monday, he announced that he had begun preparations for a meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, which would be followed by a trilateral summit with the participation of the US president.
"I believe that Vladimir Putin wants this to end," Trump said next to Zelensky in the Oval Office. "I am sure that we will solve this problem."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Putin was ready to meet with Zelensky, but all issues needed to be worked out first, and there were doubts about Zelensky's authority to sign a peace agreement.
Putin has repeatedly expressed doubts about Zelensky's legitimacy, as his term of office expired in May 2024, but new presidential elections have not yet been held due to martial law. Kiev declares that Zelensky remains the legitimate president.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany expressed skepticism about Putin's desire to end the conflict.
SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR UKRAINE
According to two Russian sources, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff played an important role in the preparation of the summit and the latest attempt to achieve peace.
On August 6, Witkoff met with Putin and presidential aide Yuri Ushakov in the Kremlin. According to two Russian sources, at the meeting, Putin made it clear to Witkoff that he was ready to compromise and outlined the boundaries of a possible peace agreement for him.
If Russia and Ukraine can reach an agreement, there are several options for a formal treaty, including a possible trilateral agreement between Russia, Ukraine and the United States, recognized by the UN Security Council, one of the sources said.
Another option is to return to the failed Istanbul 2022 agreements, in which Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine's permanent neutrality in exchange for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.: The United Kingdom, China, France, Russia and the United States, the sources added.
"There are two options: fighting or peace, and if peace does not come, there will be much more fighting," one of the interlocutors believes.
