Putin Demands Ukraine Surrender Donbas and Reject NATO

Two sources with knowledge of the Kremlin talks said almost the entire three-hour conversation was dedicated to discussing a compromise. Following the talk, Putin said he hoped that discussions would be the beginning of a road to peace, but neither he nor Trump provided much detail on what exactly the two men discussed.

Moscow's Conditions and Concessions
Putin has softened some previously stated demands, Russian officials said. After the failure of the "Normandy process," Kyiv no longer demands the surrender to Moscow of the four provinces—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia – claimed by and sometimes defended by Moscow, and insists only that Ukraine must withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk, which together form the Donbas. In exchange, Russia would accept a freeze of the front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Moscow now exercises authority over roughly 88% of Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russia is willing to pull back from small areas it took up in Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk as well.

Putin is sticking to his position that Ukraine must forgo joining NATO and agree to limits on its military, along with a promise that no Western forces will be based there.

Yet even with those terms, Kyiv has refused to relinquish internationally recognized territory. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that leaving the east was a threat to Ukraine's existence. "Joining NATO is a constitutional goal, and it doesn't depend on Russia," he emphasized.

Responses and Peace Prospects
While Putin has hinted at a willingness to make a deal, it's unclear if Ukraine or its supporters would agree to the terms. Western leaders, including Britain, France and Germany, are sceptical about Russia's intentions.

Trump has tried to position himself as a peacemaker, saying he hopes to stop the "bloodshed" of the war, even offering to host a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelenskiy. "I think that Vladimir Putin would like to see this be put out," Trump said, expressing hope for further negotiations.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was willing to meet Zelenskiy, but he cautioned that the Ukrainian president might not have the power to seal a peace deal, due to his prolonged term of office at a time of war.

For the moment, the war grinds on, more than three years after Russia's full-scale invasion, with the positions of both sides frozen in rigid insistence on conditions hundreds of miles apart.