Russian President Vladimir Putin met with US President Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday for the first Russian-American summit in more than four years. According to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, almost the entire three-hour closed-door discussion was devoted to a possible compromise on Ukraine.

After the meeting, Putin said alongside Trump that he hoped the talks would pave the way for peace, but neither leader gave details. In the most detailed report yet from Russia on Putin's offer, Reuters was able to outline what the Kremlin wants to achieve with a potential peace deal to end a war that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Details of Putin's offer

Russian sources say Putin is ready to compromise on his territorial demands from June 2024, when he demanded four regions from Kiev: Donetsk and Luhansk in the east (Donbass), and Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south. Kiev has rejected these terms as a demand for capitulation.

In the new proposal, Putin still demands that Ukraine withdraw completely from the parts of Donbas it still controls. In exchange, Moscow would freeze the current battle lines in Zaporizhia and Kherson. According to US estimates, Russia controls about 88% of Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhia and Kherson.

As part of a potential deal, Moscow is willing to return small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions that it currently holds.

Putin still demands that Ukraine renounce NATO membership, with legally binding guarantees that the alliance will not expand eastward. He also wants limits on the Ukrainian military and an agreement that Western troops will not be stationed in Ukraine, even as peacekeepers.

Responses from Kiev and the West

Despite the new proposals, the two sides remain far apart, more than three years after the start of the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not comment on the allegations.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea of giving up the internationally recognized territory, stressing that Donbas serves as a bulwark against further Russian penetration. If we are talking about a simple withdrawal from the east, we cannot do that, he said. It is a question of the survival of our country, including the strongest defense lines.

NATO membership is a strategic goal enshrined in Ukraine's constitution and seen by Kiev as a key security guarantee. Zelensky said it was not a matter for Russia to decide. The White House and NATO have not yet responded to the allegations.

Analyst skepticism and Trump's role

Analyst Samuel Charap from the American RAND Institute assessed that any withdrawal from Donbas would be unacceptable for Kiev - politically and strategically.

Opening up for 'peace' under conditions that are categorically unacceptable to the other side may be more of a show for Trump than a sign of a real willingness to compromise, he added.

Trump has said he wants to end the bloodshed and be remembered as a president of peace. On Monday, he announced that he was arranging a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, followed by a trilateral summit."I believe Vladimir Putin wants this to end," Trump said, standing next to Zelensky in the Oval Office."I'm confident we'll get this resolved."

Diplomatic efforts and possible agreements

According to two Russian sources, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff was key in preparing the summit. He met with Putin in the Kremlin on August 6, where the latter expressed his willingness to compromise and outlined the framework for a peace agreement.

If Russia and Ukraine were to reach an agreement, there are several options for formalizing the agreement, including a trilateral Russia-Ukraine-US agreement that would be ratified by the UN Security Council. Another option is to revive the failed Istanbul Accords of 2022, under which Ukraine would receive security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in exchange for permanent neutrality.

However, the leaders of Great Britain, France and Germany have expressed doubts about Putin's sincere desire for peace. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Putin was ready to meet with Zelensky, but questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian president, whose term formally expired in May 2024. There are two options: war or peace, and if there is no peace, there will be more war, one of the sources concluded, reports index.hr.