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Vladimir Putin has said that the outline of a draft peace plan discussed by the US and Ukraine could serve as a basis for future negotiations to end the war – but insisted Ukraine would have to surrender territory for any deal to be possible.
“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said, noting that the version of the plan discussed by Washington and Kyiv in Geneva had been shared with Moscow.
“We see that the American side takes our position into account in some areas,” he added. “But in other points, we clearly need to sit down and talk.”
The Russian president’s uncompromising remarks – in which he again described Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “illegitimate” – suggested that, despite White House optimism, there is little sign of movement on the core sticking points needed to end the war.
Speaking to reporters during a working visit to Kyrgyzstan, Putin said Russia would halt its offensive only if Ukrainian forces withdrew from unspecified areas currently under Kyiv’s control. “If Ukrainian troops leave the territories they occupy, then we will stop fighting,” he said. “If they don’t, we will achieve our aims militarily.”
He also repeated his claim that Ukraine’s leadership was “illegitimate”, arguing that this made it legally impossible to sign a binding agreement with Kyiv and that any future settlement would require broader international recognition.
Putin confirmed that the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, would travel to Russia early next week, and dismissed accusations that Witkoff had shown bias towards Moscow during peace discussions, calling them “nonsense”.
Witkoff, a longtime Trump business associate and property developer, has faced criticism in Europe and the US after a leaked phone call revealed him advising a senior Kremlin aide on how Putin should handle negotiations with Trump.
Russia’s recent negotiating tactics echo those it has used since Trump’s re-election: the Kremlin signals a willingness to explore potential peace deals, while showing no inclination to retreat from its maximalist demands – most of which are viewed in Kyiv as unacceptable and tantamount to capitulation.
Tatiana Stanovaya, an independent Russian political analyst, wrote on X: “I see nothing at the moment that would force Putin to recalculate his goals or abandon his core demands.
“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,” she added.
Several of those terms appeared in the original 28-point plan developed by US and Russian officials and leaked last week.
They would require Ukraine to voluntarily cede territory that Moscow has failed to seize militarily. Kyiv would also be expected to accept reductions or a halt to US military assistance, while any future deployment of western troops to Ukraine – including those envisioned under the Franco-British “coalition of the willing” – would be explicitly banned.
