Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to halt the invasion in Ukraine on the current front line, as part of a peace deal with the US President Donald Trump, said the Financial Times in a report published on Tuesday.
The report cited anonymous sources described as “people familiar with the matter.”
Putin made the proposal during a meeting with Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg earlier this month.
“We have always talked about this, that we have a positive attitude towards any peace initiatives. We hope that representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way,” Putin told state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin on Tuesday.
According to the Financial Times, the Russian president said he would consider withdrawing Moscow’s claims to parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — four regions of Ukraine that Russia partially occupies.
The United States would accept Russia’s other significant demands, including recognizing its sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, occupied in 2014, and stopping Ukraine from joining NATO, stated the report.
The London-based newspaper also reported that Kyiv and its European allies have demanded a complete restoration of Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described Ukraine’s demand as “unrealistic”.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said in a media briefing that he is open to dialogue with Russia but only after a ceasefire.
Ukrainian representatives are also set to meet with allies — the United Kingdom, France, and the United States — in London on Wednesday.
