According to the Financial Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to halt his invasion of Ukraine across the current front line as part of efforts to reach a peace deal with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The report is based on three anonymous sources.
Putin told Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, during a meeting in St Petersburg earlier this month that Moscow could relinquish its claims to areas of four partly occupied Ukrainian regions that remain under Kyiv’s control, Reuters reports.
The deal allegedly includes President Trump recognizing Crimea under Russian control.
Ukrainian officials are due to meet US and European officials in London on Wednesday. The only one going from the US contingent is Keith Kellogg. Witkoff and Sec. Rubio have declined.
Zelensky will respond when there is an official proposal. Senior Ukrainian officials said they are amenable to some of the proposals.
The US proposed a European peacekeeping force and another non-NATO force. Russia won’t agree to a NATO force.
Zelensky won’t even recognize Crimea as Russian, which was lost under Barack Obama in 2014.
Putin is allegedly prepared to give ground on full control of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. They would possibly do it if the US recognizes Crimea and bars Ukraine from joining NATO.
Russia also wants a sanctions deal.
President Putin gifted this portrait to President Trump.
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