Putin opens door to further dialogue following receipt of Trump-era Ukraine peace proposals

Kremlin reviews US peace proposals

Russia confirmed on Friday that contacts have taken place with the US administration after Moscow received Washington-backed proposals on a possible peace deal for Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov had spoken by phone with several officials from the administration of US President Donald Trump, without specifying when the conversations occurred.

According to Reuters, Peskov said Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev returned to Moscow with hard copies of US peace proposals following talks in Miami over the weekend, adding that the documents were now under review by the Kremlin.

“The information was analysed, and on behalf of President Putin, contact took place between representatives of the administrations of Russia and the United States,” Peskov said. “It was agreed to continue the dialogue.”

He added that the issue of peace in Ukraine was discussed “in general” during the exchanges.

Separately, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that Putin has told some of the country’s leading businessmen he could be open to exchanging certain territories occupied by Russian forces in Ukraine, while still seeking full control of the Donbas region.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he plans to meet his US counterpart in Florida on Sunday as diplomatic efforts continue to end the nearly four-year war. Speaking to reporters, Zelenskyy said it was unclear whether the talks would result in a firm agreement but that both sides would try to “finalise as much as we can”.

In a Christmas Eve video message posted on X, Zelenskyy said that “despite all the suffering that Russia has brought, it is not capable of occupying or bombing what matters most. That is our Ukrainian heart, our faith in one another, and our unity”.

In a veiled reference to Putin, he added: “Today, we all share one dream. And we make one wish – for all of us. ‘May he perish’, each of us may think to ourselves. But when we turn to God, of course, we ask for something greater, we ask for peace for Ukraine. We fight for it, we pray for it, we deserve it.”