Putin says he's open to U.S. peace plan, but Ukraine must cede land
by Jake Thomas · UPINov. 27 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he was receptive to the latest U.S. plan to end the conflict in Ukraine, but insisted the country's forces would have to give up territory.
Putin made the comments to reporters during a visit to the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan ahead of U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow next week. Witkoff is expected to discuss a version of the Trump administration's 28-point peace plan that's been criticized for allowing Russia to keep territory seized by force and barring Ukraine from joining the western NATO military alliance.
The Russian leader said the U.S. government is now taking some of its positions into account and that the U.S. plan "can be used" as the basis for future agreements, the state-run TASS news agency reported. However, the plan needed to be refined into "diplomatic language," while other points were non-starters.
Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukraine, about 1,500 square miles, since launching its invasion nearly four years ago. Putin said Russian forces would continue their advance in the eastern Donbass region, The Moscow Times reported.
"Ukrainian forces will have to leave the territories they currently occupy, and then the fighting will stop," he said. "If they don't, we will achieve this by military means."
Russia analyst Tatiana Stanovaya wrote in a post on X that Putin "feels more confident than ever about the battlefield situation and is convinced that he can wait until Kyiv finally accepts that it cannot win and must negotiate on Russia's well-known terms."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected calls for the country to cede territory and has insisted that any peace deal include security guarantees against further Russian aggression.
"The Russians are peddling the narrative around the world that Ukraine allegedly cannot defend itself," Zelensky said in a post X Wednesday. "They are saying that Ukrainian warriors cannot defend themselves. The daily combat results of the Ukrainian army, our special forces, and deep strikes -- these are all proof that Ukraine can defend its interests."
Putin also stated that signing any agreement with Ukraine was pointless, implying that it was illegitimate because it had not held elections during the conflict, The Kyiv Independent reported.
However, the paper pointed out that Ukraine's constitution prohibits elections from being held under martial law, which was declared at the beginning of the conflict in 2022.