Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he will end his offensive in Ukraine if Kyiv withdraws from territory Moscow claims alone — otherwise his army will take it by force.
The Russian army has been slowly but steadily moving through eastern Ukraine in costly battles against outnumbered and outnumbered Ukrainian forces.
Meanwhile Washington has renewed its push to end the nearly four-year war, putting forward a surprise plan it hopes to finalize through upcoming talks with Moscow and Kyiv.
“If the Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations,” said Putin during a visit to Kyrgyzstan. “If they don’t, then we will get it by military means.”
Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory. The issue of occupied land, which Kyiv has said it will never give up, is among the biggest obstacles in the peace process.
Another important issue in the talks are Western security guarantees for Ukraine, which Kyiv says are necessary to prevent Moscow from invading again in the future.
Washington’s original plan – drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies – would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the US de facto recognize the regions of Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk as Russian.
The United States scaled back the original plan over the weekend after criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but the new version has not yet been released.
Putin, who saw the new plan, said it could be the beginning of negotiations.
“In general, we agree that it can form the basis for future agreements,” he said of the latest draft, which the United States is believed to have shortened by about 20 points.
US negotiator Steve Witkoff was expected in Moscow next week to discuss the revised document, Putin said.
Meanwhile, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is due to visit Kyiv later this week, Ukraine’s top presidential aide Andriy Yermak said.
– ‘Little can be done’ –
In his remarks on Thursday, Putin repeated the claim that Russia had surrounded the Ukrainian army in Pokrovsk and Myrnograd in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region – the most terror-stricken area and a key target for Moscow’s forces.
“Krasnoarmeysk and Dimitrov are completely surrounded,” he said, using the Russian names for the cities.
Moscow was also advancing in Vovchansk and Siversk, as well as approaching the important logistics center of Guliaipole, he added.
The Russian offensive “is practically impossible to hold back, so very little can be done about it”, said Putin.
Ukraine has denied that Pokrovsk and Myrnograd are surrounded, insisting that its forces continue to hold the enemy along the front line.
Putin also questioned the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and said that signing any deal with him would be legally “almost impossible” at the moment, a suggestion that drew flak from Kyiv and its allies.
According to data analyzed by AFP from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces won an average of 467 square kilometers (180 square miles) per month in 2025 — a step up from 2024.
Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering Europe’s worst armed conflict since World War II.
The war killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.
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