Putin outlines new peace terms for Ukraine, demands Donbas surrender and no NATO membership: Report

Putin Demands Donbas Surrender

Russian President Vladimir Putin is insisting that Ukraine cede the entire eastern Donbas region, abandon its bid to join NATO, adopt a neutral stance, and bar Western troops from entering the country, according to three sources familiar with high-level Kremlin discussions, Reuters reported.

Following the first Russia-US summit in over four years, held in Alaska, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump spent nearly the entire three-hour closed-door meeting exploring potential compromises on the Ukraine conflict, according to sources who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Speaking alongside Trump after the meeting, Putin expressed hope that the talks would help pave the way toward peace in Ukraine, though neither leader disclosed specific details of their discussion.

In the most detailed account so far from Russian sources about Putin's proposal at the summit, Reuters outlined what the Kremlin is seeking in a potential peace agreement to end the war that has left hundreds of thousands dead or wounded.

Putin has eased his territorial demands from June 2024, which initially required Kyiv to give up all four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine (the Donbas region), along with Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south, according to Russian sources cited by Reuters.

The new proposal maintains Putin’s demand that Ukraine fully withdraw from the areas of Donbas it still controls. In return, Moscow would stop advancing in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, the sources added.

Russia currently controls about 88% of Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, based on U.S. estimates and open-source information.

Moscow is also willing to return the small parts of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions it occupies as part of a potential agreement, the sources said.

However, Kyiv has rejected these terms, viewing them as a form of surrender.

Regarding NATO, Putin remains firm on his earlier demands that Ukraine abandon its aspirations to join the alliance and that the US-led military alliance halt any further eastward expansion. He also insists on limits to the Ukrainian military and an agreement that no Western troops be deployed on Ukrainian soil as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said.

"If we're talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that," he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. "It is a matter of our country's survival, involving the strongest defensive lines."

Russian forces currently control a fifth of Ukraine, an area about the size of the American state of Ohio, according to U.S. estimates and open-source maps.

The three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in the Alaskan city of Anchorage had ushered in the best chance for peace since the war began because there had been specific discussions about Russia's terms, and Putin had shown a willingness to give ground.

"Putin is ready for peace - for compromise. That is the message that was conveyed to Trump," one of the people said.

The sources cautioned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine would be prepared to cede the remains of the Donbas, and that if it did not, then the war would continue.

(With agency inputs)