Vladimir Putin offers to halt Ukraine invasion along current front line

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to halt his invasion of Ukraine across the current front line as part of efforts to reach a peace deal with US President Donald Trump, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday citing people familiar with the matter.

Putin told Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, during a meeting in St Petersburg earlier this month that Moscow could relinquish its claims to areas of four partly occupied Ukrainian regions that remain under Kyiv’s control, the report said citing three people familiar with the talks.

Multiple sources told Reuters the US last week had proposed recognising Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.

The FT report comes as Witkoff heads to Moscow this week for a new round of talks with Putin. They have so far held three long meetings on the prospects of ending the war in Ukraine.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday Trump had met Witkoff earlier in the day and “they wanted everyone to know that the negotiations continue” and that Witkoff was headed to Russia later this week.

Trump “wants to see peace, he wants this war to end” and he has grown frustrated with both sides of the war, she said.

Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov confirmed earlier on Tuesday that Witkoff would visit Moscow this week, according to Interfax.

The meeting comes as talks prepare to get under way in London on Wednesday regarding the war in Ukraine.

Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Gen Keith Kellogg, will attend those meetings, the state department said at a separate briefing, with secretary of state Marco Rubio no longer able to attend.

Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be happy to meet Trump later this week when they both attend the funeral for Pope Francis.

Zelensky, speaking to reporters in Kyiv, said Ukraine would be ready to hold talks with Russia in any format once a ceasefire is in place and the fighting between Kyiv’s and Moscow’s forces has stopped.

Reuters