Outline Emerges Of Putin’s Offer To End His War In Ukraine

LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Russia would relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and Kyiv would cede swathes of its eastern land which Moscow has been unable to capture, under peace proposals discussed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at their Alaska summit, sources briefed on Moscow’s thinking said.

The account emerged the day after Trump and Putin met at an airforce base in Alaska, the first encounter between a U.S. president and the Kremlin chief since before the start of the Ukraine conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is due to travel to Washington on Monday to discuss with Trump a possible settlement of the full-scale war, which Putin launched in February 2022.

Although the summit failed to secure the ceasefire he said he had wanted, Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had “largely agreed”.

“I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” he said, adding: “Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they’ll say ‘no’.”

The two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said their knowledge of Putin’s proposals was mostly based on discussions between leaders in Europe, the U.S. and Ukraine, and noted it was not complete.

Trump briefed Zelenskiy and European leaders on his summit discussions early on Saturday.

It was not immediately clear if the proposals by Putin were an opening gambit to serve as a starting point for negotiations or more like a final offer that was not subject to discussion.

At face value, at least some of the demands would present huge challenges for Ukraine’s leadership to accept.

Putin’s offer ruled out a ceasefire until a comprehensive deal is reached, blocking a key demand of Zelenskiy, whose country is hit daily by Russian drones and ballistic missiles.

Under the proposed Russian deal, Kyiv would fully withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in return for a Russian pledge to freeze the front lines in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the sources said.

Ukraine has already rejected any retreat from Ukrainian land such as the Donetsk region, where its troops are dug in and which Kyiv says serves as a crucial defensive structure to prevent Russian attacks deeper into its territory.

Russia would be prepared to return comparatively small tracts of Ukrainian land it has occupied in the northern Sumy and northeastern Kharkiv…