What demands Putin is making for peace deal with Ukraine
What's the story
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly made a series of demands to Ukraine in order to reach a peace agreement. Three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the parts of the eastern Donbas region it still controls and abandon its NATO ambitions. He also wants Western troops kept out of Ukraine. The demands were made during a recent summit with US President Donald Trump in Alaska.
Territorial negotiations
Putin's new proposal
However, neither Trump nor Putin gave specifics about what they discussed. Putin's new proposal is said to be a compromise on his earlier territorial demands. He had then asked Kyiv to give up all four provinces that Moscow claims as its own: Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. Now, he only wants Ukraine to pull back from parts of Donbas it controls. In return, Russia would stop current front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Control and resistance
Ukraine rejects earlier proposals
Currently, Russia controls around 88% of Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Moscow is also willing to give up small parts of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions it controls, the sources said. However, Ukraine has rejected earlier proposals as tantamount to surrender. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed the idea of giving up internationally recognized land for peace. He argues that Donbas serves as a defensive stronghold against further Russian advances into Ukraine.
Membership and economy
Zelenskiy says NATO membership is a constitutional goal for Ukraine
Meanwhile, Ukraine sees joining NATO as a key security guarantee, with Zelenskyy saying it was not up to Russia to decide on the alliance's membership. However, the Trump administration has ruled that out as "unrealistic." On Tuesday, he underlined that Ukraine will not be able to join NATO. "There'll be some form of security. It can't be NATO," he said.
Agreement options
What could a peace deal look like?
If an agreement is reached, it could lead to various formal deals, including a three-way Russia-Ukraine-US deal recognized by the United Nations Security Council, one of the sources told Reuters. Another option could be reviving the failed 2022 Istanbul agreements for Ukraine's neutrality in exchange for security guarantees from five UN Security Council members. However, Britain, France, and Germany remain skeptical about Putin's willingness to end the war.