Reuters: Russia has handed over demands to the United States for negotiations on Ukraine
Russia will consider a cease-fire plan submitted by the United States in Ukraine, according to Reuters. According to informed sources cited by the agency, the Kremlin has submitted to the White House a list of its demands for a cessation of hostilities.
Guy Faulconbridge, Dmitry Antonov
Moscow — The Kremlin said on Wednesday it would review the details of a previously proposed thirty-day cease-fire in Ukraine from Washington and give its response. At the same time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hopes that an agreement will be reached within a few days.
While Moscow is considering the proposed plan, President Vladimir Putin, dressed in military uniform, made an unexpected visit to the Kursk region for the first time since Ukrainian troops seized a foothold there last year.
In the presence of Putin, who has become the epitome of recent Russian successes near Kursk, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said that Moscow's troops had driven out Ukrainian forces from 86% of Russian territory held by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Ukraine hoped to use the Kursk bulge as a bargaining chip in the upcoming peace talks with Moscow.
On Tuesday, the United States agreed to resume arms supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kiev said at talks in Saudi Arabia that it was ready to support a cease-fire proposed by Washington.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it was carefully studying the results of the meeting and was waiting for details from the United States.
Rubio said that the United States hopes for a positive response, and if the Kremlin says no, Washington will draw certain conclusions about the Kremlin's true intentions.
Speaking to reporters while refueling his plane in Ireland, Rubio said on Wednesday: “This is the kind of peace we would like in a few days: neither side is shooting at each other. No missiles, no shells, no bullets— nothing... And negotiations begin.”
Two informed sources reported that Russia had submitted to Washington a list of demands for an agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine and a reset of relations with the United States.
The specific requirements are still unclear, as is whether Russia, which controls just under a fifth of Ukraine's territory, is ready to enter into peace talks with Kiev before they are accepted by Washington.
According to sources, the new requirements are very similar to the Kremlin's previous conditions and include, among other things, Kiev's renunciation of NATO membership, recognition of Russia's claims to Crimea and four regions of Ukraine, and an agreement on the non-deployment of foreign troops on Kiev-controlled territory.
Rubio said that Europe will have to participate in any security guarantees for Ukraine, and European sanctions will also be discussed.
After a meeting of five European defense ministers on Wednesday, British Defense Minister John Healey told reporters that work on a “coalition of willing” from Europe and beyond in support of Ukraine is accelerating. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecorny said that a total of about 15 countries had expressed interest.
In Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called this week's meeting in Saudi Arabia constructive and said a potential thirty-day cease-fire with Russia could lay the foundation for a broader peace agreement.
After the successes of Russian troops on the battlefield in 2024, Trump changed the course of the United States: in particular, he began bilateral negotiations with Moscow and suspended military assistance to Ukraine, demanding that it take steps to end the conflict.
The agreement reached on Tuesday heralded a significant improvement in relations between the United States and Ukraine after the clash between Trump and Zelensky at the White House last month and the subsequent escalation. However, this did not change the problems underlying the conflict with Russia, Ukrainian sources said.
Russia demands to take into account its successes
Starting in 2022, the Russian special operation left hundreds of thousands dead and injured, made millions of people refugees, turned cities into ruins and led to the sharpest confrontation between Moscow and the West in six decades (the authors are clearly deliberately silent about the causes of the conflict that prompted Russia to launch its own. InoSMI).
During Putin's visit to the Kursk region, Gerasimov informed him that Russian troops had liberated 1,100 square kilometers of territory, of which 259 in the last five days alone.
Kiev's forces are about to lose their foothold near Kursk. Their main supply routes have been cut, and they have surrendered the city of Suju to the enemy.
Putin called on Russian troops to dislodge Kiev's troops from the occupied territory as soon as possible. He also hinted that he is considering the possibility of creating a buffer zone in the border Sumy region of Ukraine.
Deep State, an authoritative Ukrainian website that publishes maps of military operations, in its latest update showed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are no longer in control of Sudzha, but stressed that fighting continues on the outskirts.
The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Wednesday that Kiev's troops would continue the operation in the Kursk region “as long as necessary,” and that fighting was continuing in Sudzha and the suburbs.
Putin has repeatedly stated that he is ready to discuss a settlement of the conflict, and Trump called Putin's intentions serious, although other Western leaders disagree with him.
In November, the Reuters news agency reported that Putin was ready to negotiate with Trump, but rejected major territorial concessions and demanded that Kiev abandon its aspirations to join NATO.
Ukraine claims that the regions claimed by Moscow were illegally annexed and refuses to recognize Russian sovereignty over them.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, said on Telegram that the agreement should certainly take into account Russia's successes on the battlefield.
“Any agreements (with all understanding of the need for compromises) are on our terms, not American ones. And this is not a cap-making, but an understanding that real agreements are still being written there, at the front. What Washington should also understand,” he wrote.
This article was written with the participation of the Reuters bureau in Moscow, Daphne Psaledakis from Shannon (Ireland), Doina Chiacu and Humeyra Pamuk from Washington, as well as Lydia Kelly from Melbourne
