President Vladimir Putin has once again warned that Ukrainian forces must withdraw from Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region or Russia will occupy it, rejecting any compromise on how to end the war in Ukraine.
“If we do not liberate this territory by force, the Ukrainian army will leave this territory,” he said. Moscow controls about 85% of Donbas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruled out ceding territory.
Putin’s comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed the Russian leader “will want to end the war” following talks in Moscow on Tuesday while discussing the U.S. peace plan.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who visited Moscow, is scheduled to meet with the Ukraine team in Florida.
Trump said Tuesday’s meeting at the Kremlin was “reasonably good” and that “it’s too early to tell what’s going to happen because it takes two to tango.”
The original version of the U.S. peace plan proposed bringing the Donbas region, still controlled by Ukraine, under Putin’s de facto control, but Witkoff’s team presented a modified version in Moscow.
In an interview with India Today ahead of his state visit to Delhi, Putin said he had not seen the new version before his meeting with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
“So we had to review everything, that’s why it took so long,” the Kremlin leader said.
He also said Russia disagrees with parts of the U.S. plan.
“Sometimes we say we can discuss this, but we cannot agree,” Putin said.
He didn’t mention the problem. Two major issues remain: the fate of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces and Ukraine’s security guarantees.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy adviser and main negotiator, said immediately after the meeting that “there is no compromise” on ending the war.
Ushakov also hinted that Moscow’s recent battlefield successes have strengthened Russia’s negotiating position.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of delaying a cease-fire agreement, saying Moscow is trying to seize more Ukrainian territory.
In response to the Kremlin meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibia said Putin was “wasting the world’s time.”
Ukraine has long insisted on firm security guarantees for Ukraine in any deal.
“The world clearly feels that there is a chance to end the war,” Prime Minister Zelensky said on Wednesday. But the deal “must be underpinned by pressure on Russia,” he said. Kiev and its European allies accuse it of deliberately delaying the ceasefire agreement.
The Ukrainian president said last week, during talks with the US delegation in Geneva on November 23, that his top negotiators had made several key changes to the original US peace plan that appeared to largely favor Moscow.
In a joint statement, U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators said at the time they had drawn up an “updated and refined peace framework” but did not provide further details.
Europe’s top negotiators, who had expressed concerns about the original U.S. plan, were also in the Swiss city last week, holding separate meetings with the Ukrainian and U.S. teams.
In a separate development Thursday, Germany’s Der Spiegel news website said it had obtained a confidential transcript of a conference call in which European leaders expressed concerns about the U.S. deal.
“There is a possibility that the United States will betray Ukraine on territorial issues without clarity on security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, according to an English-language transcript of Monday’s conference call.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reportedly warned Zelenskyy that he “must be extremely careful going forward.”
“They are playing a game with you and all of us,” Mertz said.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb also reportedly said, “Ukraine and Volodymyr should not be left alone with them.”
The BBC has not seen the transcript as reported.
In response to Der Spiegel’s investigation, France’s Elysee Palace said, “The president did not express himself in that way.” The Blue House refused to disclose the contents of President Macron’s remarks, citing confidentiality.
Stubb declined to comment to Der Spiegel and Merz did not comment on the matter.
“Secretary Rubio, Special Envoy Witkoff, Prime Minister Kushner, and the President’s entire national security team are working tirelessly to stop the carnage between Russia and Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement to the BBC.
“They held productive meetings to gather feedback from both sides on a plan that could foster a lasting and enforceable peace,” the statement said.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukraine’s territory.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have been slowly advancing into southeastern Ukraine despite reported heavy combat casualties.
