Putin reportedly proposes freezing Ukraine war along current frontlines

Vladimir Putin has offered to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and freeze the war along the current frontlines, The Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources familiar with Russia-US talks on ending the conflict.

According to the FT, Putin floated the proposal to US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff during a meeting in St. Petersburg earlier this month, suggesting that Moscow could relinquish its claims to areas of the four Russian-occupied regions of eastern Ukraine that remain under Kyiv’s control.

Russia illegally annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine in 2022, but does not fully control any of them. Putin, however, has previously insisted on the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entirety of all four regions as a prerequisite for peace.

Since the Putin-Witkoff meeting, Washington has suggested its own concessions to Russia as part of a peace deal, the FT said, including formal recognition of Moscow’s ownership of Crimea — which Russia annexed in violation of international law in 2014 — and “at least acknowledging the Kremlin’s de facto control over the parts of the four regions it currently holds”.

The FT cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that Moscow was engaged in “tense work” in talks with Washington and that it was “difficult to expect immediate results” on any deal to end the war.

However, Peskov later appeared to cast doubt on the report’s accuracy, telling reporters in Moscow that “a lot of fakes” were being published about the peace negotiations “including by reputable outlets” and stressing that people should “listen only to primary sources” for news on any settlement.

Top diplomats from Ukraine, the UK, France, Germany and the US were due to meet in London on Wednesday to discuss a ceasefire proposal amid threats from US President Donald Trump that Washington is prepared to walk away from the peace process should there be no progress on a deal in the near future, though this was downgraded to senior officials after Kyiv refused to accept details of the US plan, according to Sky News.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the latest US proposal to Ukraine, which it presented during talks in Paris last week and which Kyiv has interpreted as Washington’s “final offer” before abandoning its efforts to end the war, would see Kyiv formally recognise Russian control over Crimea and would freeze the war along existing frontlines.

While Trump expressed his hope on Sunday that an agreement to end the war would be reached “this week”, the Crimea question is likely to be a sticking point for Ukraine, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterating on Tuesday that Kyiv would not countenance formal recognition of Russia’s control over the peninsula and that there was “nothing to talk about” on the issue.