Putin sees US peace plan as a starting point as he warns Ukraine’s army to withdraw

U.S. proposals to end the war between Russia and Ukraine offer a starting point for talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, as he told Ukrainian forces to pull back or be overrun by Russia’s bigger army.

“We need to sit down and discuss this seriously,” Putin told reporters at the end of a three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan. “Every word matters.”

He described U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan as “a set of issues put forward for discussion” rather than a draft agreement.

“If Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy, hostilities will cease. If they don’t withdraw, we will achieve this by force,” the Russian leader said.

Kremlin officials have had little to say so far about the peace plan put forward last week by Trump. Since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, Putin has shown no willingness to budge from his goals in Ukraine despite Trump’s push for a settlement.

Putin has previously demanded that Ukraine completely withdraw from the entirety of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions before Russia considers any sort of “peace negotiations” — notably including areas of each of those oblasts that Russia does not occupy. He also wants to keep Ukraine from joining NATO and hosting any Western troops, allowing Moscow to gradually pull the country back into its orbit.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Moscow next week, the Kremlin says, while U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who in recent weeks has played a high-profile role in the peace efforts, may be heading to Kyiv.

The initial U.S. peace proposals appeared heavily skewed toward Russian demands, but an amended version emerged from talks in Geneva on Sunday between American and Ukrainian officials. Sidelined European leaders, fearing for their own security amid Russian aggression, are angling for deeper involvement in the process.

Putin looks to outlast the West’s commitment, analysts say

Analysts say Putin is attempting to outwait the commitment of Western countries to supporting Ukraine’s war effort. Trump has previously signaled he could walk away from efforts to stop the fighting if there is no progress. European officials say Putin is stalling because Russia wants to grab more of Ukraine before accepting any deal.

Russian officials have claimed they have battlefield momentum in Ukraine, even though their slow progress has been costly in terms of casualties and armor.

The Institute for the Study of War on Wednesday cast doubt on Russian claims that its invasion is unstoppable as it is still struggling to capture cities in the eastern Donetsk region.

“Data on Russian forces’ rate of advance indicates that a Russian military victory in Ukraine is not inevitable, and a rapid Russian seizure of the rest of Donetsk Oblast (region) is not imminent,” the Washington-based think tank said. “Recent Russian advances elsewhere on the front line have largely been opportunistic and exploited seasonal weather conditions.”

In the latest example of tension between Moscow and European countries, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it had ordered the closure of Poland’s Consulate General in the eastern city of Irkutsk.

The tit-for-tat move follows the closure of Russia’s Consulate General in the Polish city of Gdansk in November. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow would not “allow such actions to go unanswered.”

Poland announced the closure of the Gdansk consulate after a railway line close to Warsaw was sabotaged in mid-November. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk later said that two Ukrainian citizens working for Russia were suspected of carrying out the attack.

Long-range attacks continue

The diplomatic developments have come against a backdrop of continued fighting.

A 53-year-old man was killed in a Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, officials said Friday. Also, Russia attacked Ukraine’s Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions early Thursday, injuring three people and starting fires, local authorities said. Russia launched 142 drones at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force.

Meanwhile, Russian air defenses downed 118 Ukrainian drones overnight above various Russian regions and the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Ukraine’s army isn’t only under pressure on the battlefield. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government is mired in a major corruption scandal and is short of money.

In a development offering some relief, Ukraine reached an agreement for the International Monetary Fund to provide $8.1 billion over four years, according to a statement by the institution. The money comes from a fund that helps countries facing medium-term payment difficulties.

But Ukraine’s state budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027 are estimated at $153 billion.

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Sam McNeil contributed to this report from Brussels.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine