Moscow ready for ‘serious’ talks on Ukraine peace plan

Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken his silence on a U.S.-backed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, saying his government is ready to “seriously” discuss the draft proposal.

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the outline of a peace plan just reached by the United States and Ukraine could serve as the basis for an agreement to end nearly four years of conflict.

“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said in comments during a visit to Kyrgyzstan, translated by Reuters.

The president said the United States “appears to be taking into account” Russia’s position on the peace deal, adding that Moscow was ready for “serious discussions” when U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff visits Moscow for talks next week.

This is the first time President Putin has publicly mentioned a peace plan since the diplomatic turmoil between the United States and Ukraine in recent days. The talks followed reports last week that the United States and Russia had developed a 28-point peace plan that appeared to be largely supportive of Russia’s demands.

Ukraine and its European allies scrambled to mount a response, inserting a counterproposal that was discussed in Geneva with a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the weekend.

The current draft plan, reportedly slimmed down to 19 main proposals, appears to have received tentative support from Ukraine, putting the ball back in Russia’s court as to whether the framework can be accepted and built on.

On Wednesday, Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov claimed that Russia had not even seen the official version of the latest US-backed draft agreement for Ukraine, but had seen an unofficial version.

Ushakov said the Kremlin is positive about some aspects of the plan he has seen so far, but “some aspects require serious analysis.”

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that while Russia welcomes U.S. efforts on a peace plan, there will be “no concessions on important issues regarding reconciliation with Ukraine,” suggesting there may be some distance before an actual agreement is reached.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday warned against jumping to conclusions about ending the war that Russia started when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“Wait, it’s too early to say that,” Peskov told reporters when asked if Russia and Ukraine were the closest ever to a peace deal, according to state news agency TASS.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised Russia’s advance into Ukraine and told reporters that fighting in Ukraine will only stop if Ukrainian forces withdraw from positions in key regions.

If it does not, Russian forces will achieve their objectives by force, he added, seeming to suggest that Russia has no intention of abandoning one of its key objectives in the war (and included in the original peace plan drafted in secret with the United States): complete control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

CNBC has contacted the Kremlin for further comment and is awaiting a response.

A Ukrainian delegation that met with U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday appeared to tentatively endorse the basics of a U.S.-backed peace plan, although key details remained unresolved, multiple media outlets reported on Tuesday.

ABC News and CBS News both reported that unnamed U.S. officials said the Ukrainian side had “agreed” to the deal, but added that there were still issues to be resolved. It is unclear whether both articles quoted the same U.S. official.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Tuesday that Kiev was ready to move forward with the peace framework, Reuters reported, citing a copy of a speech he gave to a coalition of allies.

“I think we’re very close to a deal. We’ll see…I think we’re making progress,” President Donald Trump said at the White House on Tuesday.

“Slight disagreements remain,” Trump said in a Truth Social post late Tuesday afternoon.