President Vladimir Putin has again warned that Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the eastern Donbass region or Russia will seize it, rejecting any compromise on how to end Ukraine’s war.
“Either we liberate these territories by force or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories,” he told India Today. Moscow controls around 85% of Donbass.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out any transfer of territory.
Putin’s comments come after President Donald Trump said his negotiators discussing a U.S. peace plan believed the Russian leader “wants to end the war” after Tuesday’s talks in Moscow.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who was in Moscow, is scheduled to meet with the Ukrainian team in Florida.
Trump said Tuesday’s discussions in the Kremlin were “reasonably good,” adding that it was too early to tell what would happen because “it takes two to tango.”
The original version of the US peace plan proposed returning areas of Donbass still under Ukrainian control to Putin’s de facto control – but Witkoff’s team presented a modified version to Moscow.
In his interview with India Today ahead of a state visit to Delhi, Putin said he had not seen the new version before his talks with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
“That’s why we had to consider every point, that’s why it took so long,” the Kremlin leader said.
He also said Moscow disagreed with parts of the US plan.
“Sometimes we said that yes, we can discuss this, but we cannot agree on this,” Putin said.
He did not name the sticking points. At least two important points of contention remain: the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Putin’s top foreign policy adviser and key negotiator, Yuri Ushakov, said earlier after the talks that they had reached “no compromise” on ending the war.
Ushakov also suggested that Russia’s negotiating position had been strengthened by what Moscow sees as its recent battlefield successes.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of blocking any ceasefire deal, saying Moscow is seeking to seize more Ukrainian territory.
Commenting on the Kremlin negotiations, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybhia said Putin was “wasting the world’s time.”
Ukraine has long insisted on strong security guarantees in any deal.
On Wednesday, Zelensky said that “the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war” – but that negotiations must be “supported by pressure on Russia”, which kyiv and its European allies accuse of deliberately blocking any ceasefire agreement.
Ukraine’s president said last week that his top negotiators had managed to make key changes to the original US peace plan – seen as strongly favorable to Moscow – during discussions with a US delegation in Geneva on November 23.
In a joint statement, US and Ukrainian negotiators said at the time that they had developed an “updated and refined peace framework” – but provided no further details.
Top European negotiators – who had expressed concerns about the initial US plan – were also in the Swiss city last week, meeting separately with the Ukrainian and US teams.
In another development on Thursday, German news site Der Spiegel said it had obtained a confidential transcript of a conference call in which European leaders expressed concerns about the US negotiations.
“There is a possibility that the United States will betray Ukraine on the territorial issue without clarity on security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said, according to an English-language transcript of Monday’s conference call.
At the same time, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reportedly warned that Zelensky must be “extremely careful in the coming days.”
“They are playing games, both with you and with us,” Merz reportedly said.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb was also quoted as saying: “We must not leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys. »
The BBC has not seen the reported transcript.
In response to an investigation by Spiegel, the Élysée Palace declared that “the president did not express himself in these terms.” The presidential office declined to provide details about how Macron spoke, citing confidentiality.
Stubb declined to comment to Spiegel and Merz had no comment on the matter.
In a statement to the BBC, the White House said: “Secretary [Marco] Rubio, Special Envoy Witkoff, Mr. Kushner and the President’s entire national security team are working tirelessly to end the killings between Russia and Ukraine.
“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 around 20% of Ukraine’s territory.
In recent weeks, Russian troops have advanced slowly into southeastern Ukraine, despite heavy combat losses.
