Vladimir Putin breaks his silence on Ukraine peace plan, says Moscow ready for ‘serious’ talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken his silence on a US-backed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, saying Moscow is ready for “serious” discussions about the draft proposals.

Mr Putin said Thursday that the outlines of a fledgling peace plan that has been reached by the US and Ukraine could be the basis of a deal that ends the almost four-year long conflict.

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

The President added that the US appeared to be taking Russia’s position on a peace settlement “into account” and that Moscow was ready for “serious discussions” when US special envoy Steve Witkoff travels to Moscow next week for talks.

It’s the first time Mr Putin has publicly addressed a peace plan since a flurry of diplomacy between the US and Ukraine in the last few days. Those talks came after reports last week of a US-Russia devised 28-point peace plan, which appeared to heavily favour Russia’s demands.

Ukraine and its European allies’ scrambled to mount a response, amending the plan and inserting counter proposals which were discussed in Geneva last weekend with a US delegation led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

All eyes on Russia

The current draft plan, which has reportedly been slimmed down to 19 key proposals, appears to have received Ukraine’s tentative backing, putting the ball back in Russia’s court as to whether it could accept the framework and build upon it.

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

Regarding the plan it had seen, Mr Ushakov said the Kremlin viewed some aspects of the plan positively while “several of its points require serious analysis.”

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said Moscow welcomed US efforts on peace proposals but said “there are no concessions on key issues on the Ukraine settlement,” suggesting there could be some distance to travel before a deal is actually reached.

Mr Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov warned on Wednesday against jumping to conclusions regarding an end to the war, which Russia launched when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“Wait. It’s too early to say that,” Mr Peskov told reporters, state news agency TASS reported, when asked whether this was the closest Russia and Ukraine had ever been to concluding a peace agreement.

Mr Putin on Thursday praised Russian advances in Ukraine and told reporters that the fighting in Ukraine would stop only when Ukrainian troops withdraw from their positions in key areas.

If they did not do so, then Russian forces would achieve their objectives by force, he added, appearing to suggest that Moscow was not willing to give up one of its key objectives in the war (and contained within the initial peace plan secretly drafted with the US) which was to have full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

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

Ukraine on board, tentatively

Multiple outlets reported Tuesday that a Ukrainian delegation that had held talks with US officials in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday appeared to tentatively support the basis of a US-backed peace plan — though key details remained unresolved.

ABC News and CBS News both reported an unnamed US official had said that the Ukrainians “have agreed” to the deal, while adding there were still points that had to be ironed out. It was unclear if both stories quoted the same US official.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said later Tuesday that Kyiv was ready to advance the peace framework, Reuters reported, citing a copy of a speech the president gave to a coalition of allied countries.

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

In a Truth Social post later Tuesday afternoon, Mr Trump said, “there are only a few remaining points of disagreement.”