Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are close to agreeing a deal that would stop the war in Ukraine in return for Russia being able to hang on to territory seized during the invasion, sources say.
The agreement would reportedly see Ukraine cede the entire Donbas region, while withdrawing its military presence in the parts of Luhansk and Donetsk it still holds.
Such an outcome could be hailed as a win for Putin and Russia, which under the terms of the agreement, would in return end its attacks in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Sources told Bloomberg that talks are still fluid with terms subject to change.
It comes as President Trump’s deadline loomed on Friday, two weeks after he threatened Russia with more sanctions if the Kremlin failed to make progress towards agreeing a settlement.
Asked on Thursday whether an agreement would be reached, Trump said: ‘It’s going to be up to him. We’re going to see what he has to say. It’s going to be up to him. Very disappointed.
Trump has committed to meeting with Putin even if Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is frozen out of discussions.
The Russian leader said he hoped to meet his US counterpart as early as next week, potentially in the UAE.
Experts however, believe that Putin is bullish about being able to outlast both the US and Ukraine and could continue to play for time in order to extract further concessions from both.
Other demands floated by the Russian president include fresh elections in Ukraine and a commitment the nation will not join NATO.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Putin remains ‘uninterested in ending his war and is attempting to extract bilateral concessions from the United States without meaningfully engaging in a peace process’.
Its assessment continued: ‘Putin continues to believe that time is on Russia’s side and that Russia can outlast Ukraine and the West.’
Meanwhile, Russian forces have continued to advance deeper into Ukraine, bombarding cities including in the Pokrovsk area in eastern Donetsk.
On the frontline, Ukrainian commanders continue to believe the only way to stop Russia is to defeat its forces and hold little hope of a negotiated ceasefire.
A Spartan Brigade commander, who goes by the callsign Buda, said: ‘It is impossible to negotiate with them. The only option is to defeat them.’
He added: ‘I would like them to agree and for all this to stop, but Russia will not agree to that. It does not want to negotiate. So the only option is to defeat them.’
On Friday, the Kremlin said Putin had held a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the latter who earlier this week had met with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
Russian officials said Xi had ‘expressed support for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis on a long-term basis’.
US sources say that China has provided military support for Russia’s campaign in Ukraine, alongside North Korea and Iran.
Putin also spoke with India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, days after Trump slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff on the nation for buying Russian oil, which he says is helping to finance the Kremlin’s campaign.
One Kremlin analyst suggested that Putin’s flurry of phone calls indicated an impending agreement which could be finalised at a summit with Trump.
Sergei Markov said: ‘It means that some sort of real peace agreement has been reached for the first time.’
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