The Russian leader said Ukraine should cede important territory and the world should recognize Russia’s interests.
Published November 27, 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed optimism about the U.S.-backed draft peace plan for Ukraine, saying it could form the basis of a future agreement with which Russia is ready to hold “serious” discussions.
President Putin told reporters Thursday during a state visit to Kyrgyzstan that the United States had taken Russia’s position into account in the negotiations, but said some issues still needed to be resolved.
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“In general, we agree that this could form the basis for future agreements,” he said of the draft plan.
The Russian leader also confirmed that President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will soon visit Moscow for further talks, saying the focus should be on Russia-controlled Donbass and Crimea.
The United States last week unveiled a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine that was widely seen as too favorable to Russia, including calls for Kiev to make significant territorial concessions and abandon its NATO ambitions. The plan was later changed with Ukrainian input, abolishing the 600,000-member cap on Ukrainian troops and a general war crimes amnesty, said Sergiy Kislysha, Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister.
However, full details of the latest proposal have not been disclosed.
President Putin said in recent remarks that there is no final version of the plan to speak of.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Thursday that U.S. and Ukrainian officials will continue to work on the plan.
“Ukrainian forces must withdraw”
Despite his apparent openness to reconciliation, President Putin insisted he was ready to continue fighting the nearly four-year war, which has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and injured on both sides, unless Ukraine gives up key territory.
“Ukrainian forces must withdraw from their occupied territories, and then the fighting will stop. If they do not withdraw, we will achieve this by military means. That’s all,” Putin said, insisting that Russian troops were advancing into Ukraine at a faster pace.
The Russian leader also said that any future agreement must recognize Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine and be accepted by the international community, adding that he sees Ukraine’s current leadership as illegitimate.
Crimea bridge attack suspect sentenced in Russia
Putin’s remarks came on the same day a Russian court handed down a verdict in the 2022 truck bomb attack claimed by Ukraine’s secret services.
A military tribunal in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don has sentenced eight men accused of assisting Ukrainian secret services in a bombing that destroyed a bridge connecting southern Russia with Russian-annexed Crimea, damaging a vital supply route for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
The bridge is seen by both Ukraine and Russia as a symbol of Moscow’s occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014, and was personally completed by President Vladimir Putin in 2018.
The defendants in the case were found guilty of “terrorism” and arms trafficking, and pleaded not guilty.
