As Putin floats peace terms, US-Ukraine call for prolonged war

Russia has offered its most concrete public proposal for ending the war. But Kyiv and Washington have different plans.

(Photo by Ukrainian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Ahead of an international Ukraine “peace summit” in Switzerland to which he was not invited, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out his most concrete public proposal to date for ending the war.

Ukraine, Putin said in a June 14^th speech to Russian foreign ministry officials, should withdraw all its forces from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, regions that Russia has claimed to annex despite not fully controlling. The Russian leader also called on Kyiv to renounce its bid to join NATO and commit to permanent neutrality, as its founding constitution previously enshrined, and to never acquire nuclear weapons. If Ukraine were to accept those terms, Putin said, “our side will follow an order to cease fire and start negotiations... expeditiously.”

For Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his Western sponsors, Putin’s offer is a non-starter.