Putin says Trump ideas could bring peace in Ukraine, urges Kyiv to compromise

Zelensky, meanwhile, proposed face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to the Russian leader

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s proposals for peace in Ukraine could end the fighting, but said Kyiv needed to compromise – and that he saw no signs of that, so was ready to fight on to victory.

Speaking to foreign media editors on the sidelines of Russia’s annual economic forum in what is the fifth ‌year of Europe’s deadliest land war since World War II, Putin said Russia would defeat Ukraine on the battlefield if necessary.

But he said it was also ready to end the war via diplomacy, and to honour unspecified compromises he said had been agreed with Trump at a summit in Alaska last year.

He showed no signs of changing his stance that for the war to end, Ukraine must surrender the rest of its eastern Donbas region – a demand that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected as akin to capitulation.

“The offensive ⁠is ongoing on a daily basis. At present, the Russian Federation has taken full control of the Luhansk People’s Republic – 100 per cent. And Russia has ‌brought over 85 per cent of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic under its control,” he said, referring to two of the four regions in Ukraine which Moscow claimed as its own in 2022, in a move Kyiv ‌and most Western countries rejected as an illegal land grab.

“We are certainly prepared and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine ⁠through peaceful means. Specifically, on ⁠the basis we discussed during our meeting with President Trump in Anchorage.