Vladimir Putin is pressing for a deal that would force Ukraine to surrender its eastern Donbas region, abandon its NATO ambitions, and block any Western troops from setting foot on its soil, according to three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin discussions.
The Russian president’s demands, relayed after his three-hour summit with Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, represent Moscow’s most detailed outline yet of what it considers a path to ending the war. In essence: Ukraine exits the Donbas, Russia halts further advances in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and Kyiv accepts neutrality backed by guarantees that NATO won’t expand eastward.
The offer marks a shift. Just last year, Putin insisted Ukraine cede all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. Now, sources say, he is prepared to hold existing lines in the south, while returning small pockets of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk still under Russian control. But the Kremlin remains adamant that Ukraine must fully quit the Donbas, where Russia already occupies roughly 88% of the territory.
Kyiv is unmoved. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made clear Ukraine will not surrender internationally recognized land or shelve its NATO bid, which is enshrined in its constitution. “If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” he said Thursday. “It is a matter of survival.”
Trump, for his part, emerged from the summit pitching himself as peacemaker-in-chief. “I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended,” he said beside Zelenskyy at the White House days later, pledging to arrange a direct Putin-Zelenskyy meeting followed by a trilateral summit with Washington.
But European leaders remain skeptical. London, Paris, and Berlin have all voiced doubts that Putin’s “compromise” amounts to anything more than buying time while entrenching Russian control. RAND’s Samuel Charap calls the Donbas demand a “non-starter” and warns the outreach may be more performance than peace.
Still, Moscow’s messaging has shifted: Russia wants neutrality locked in, NATO’s eastern door sealed, Western troops barred, and Ukraine’s army capped. In return, it hints at halting its advances. “Putin is ready for compromise,” one source told Reuters. “That is the message that was conveyed to Trump.”
Whether this is genuine flexibility or tactical theater may soon be tested. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, has been laying groundwork for further talks, and Moscow has floated formats ranging from a three-way U.S.-Russia-Ukraine pact to resurrecting the Istanbul neutrality deal of 2022.
Yet the choice remains stark. As one Kremlin insider put it: “There are two choices: war or peace, and if there is no peace, then there is more war.”
