Putin says US-backed peace plan as framework is OK ‘in general’

Russian leader says Ukraine must cede key territory and the world must recognise Russia’s gains.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has expressed optimism about a draft United States-backed peace plan for Ukraine, saying it could serve as the foundation for a future deal that Russia is ready for “serious” discussion on.

Speaking to reporters Thursday while on a state visit to Kyrgyzstan, Putin acknowledged the US had taken Russia’s position into account in negotiations, but said some issues still needed to be hammered out.

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“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” he said of the draft plan.

The Russian leader also confirmed United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff would soon travel to Moscow for more talks, which he said should focus on Russia-controlled Donbas and Crimea.

The US last week revealed a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine that was widely viewed as too favourable to Russia, including calling for Kyiv to make major territorial concessions and abandon its NATO ambitions. The plan has since been altered with Ukrainian input, nixing a 600,000-member cap on Ukraine’s army and a general war crimes amnesty, said Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya.

However, the full details of the latest proposal have not been disclosed.

Putin, in his latest remarks, said there is no final version of the plan to speak of.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Thursday that US and Ukrainian officials will continue to work on the plan.

‘Ukrainian troops must withdraw’

Despite Putin’s apparent openness to a settlement, he insisted Russia is willing to keep fighting the nearly four-year war that has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands on each side if Ukraine does not give up key territory.

“Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the territories they hold, and then the fighting will cease. If they don’t leave, then we shall achieve this by armed means. That’s it,” Putin said, claiming Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine at a faster pace.

The Russian leader also said any future agreement must acknowledge Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine and be accepted by the international community, adding that he views Ukraine’s current leadership as illegitimate.

Russia sentences alleged Crimea bridge attackers

Putin’s remarks come the same day a Russian court issued a verdict in a deadly 2022 truck bomb attack claimed by Ukraine’s secret services.

The military court in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don handed life sentences to eight men accused of helping Ukraine’s secret services carry out the bombing, which ripped through a bridge linking southern Russia to Russian-annexed Crimea and damaged what was a key supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

The bridge, seen by both Ukraine and Russia as a symbol of Moscow’s 2014 seizure and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, was personally inaugurated by Putin in 2018.

The defendants in the case, convicted of “terrorism” and arms trafficking, maintained their innocence.