Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine abandon the entire Donbass region, give up the prospect of joining NATO , remain neutral and exclude the presence of Western troops on its territory, according to three sources familiar with the Kremlin's intentions who spoke to Reuters.

These terms were at the center of the meeting between the Russian president and Donald Trump in Alaska, the first Russian-American summit in four years.

The meeting lasted three hours and, according to the same sources, almost exclusively concerned the conditions for a possible compromise.

After the summit, Putin appeared optimistic that the path to peace was opening, but without providing details.

Moscow's new proposals

The Kremlin has adjusted its initial demands. While in the summer of 2024 it was demanding the full cession of all four provinces it claims to belong to Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – it is now focusing on Donbass.

Putin demands the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the areas they still control on the eastern front. In return, Russia will freeze the lines on the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya fronts.

According to American estimates, Russia controls 88% of Donbas and 73% of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.

As part of the agreement, it appears willing to withdraw from small areas it holds in the Kharkov, Sumy , and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The demands also include a permanent abandonment of Ukraine's ambition to join NATO, a legally binding promise by the Alliance not to expand further east, restrictions on the Ukrainian military, and an explicit ban on the deployment of Western peacekeeping forces.

The position of Kiev

The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly rejected any concession of territory.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Donbass is a stronghold holding back Russia and that abandoning it would be tantamount to suicide for the state.

NATO membership remains a constitutionally enshrined goal, while Zelensky stressed that it is not Moscow's prerogative to decide on the Alliance.

Washington and NATO did not immediately respond to the Russian proposals.

Trump, for his part, appears determined to go down in history as a president of peace and has undertaken to mediate a Putin-Zelensky meeting, with the prospect of a trilateral US-Russia-Ukraine summit.

I believe Putin wants this war to end. I am confident that we will resolve it, he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Putin was willing to meet with Zelensky, but questioned his legitimacy , given that his term expired in May 2024 without new elections being held due to war. Kiev responds that Zelensky remains the legitimate president.

Leaders of Britain, France and Germany have expressed doubts that Putin truly seeks peace.

Scenarios for security guarantees

According to Reuters sources, Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff played a key role in preparing the summit.

On August 6, he met with Putin in Moscow, where the lines of a possible compromise were laid out.

Different scenarios for Ukraine's security guarantees are on the table:

• Tripartite agreement between Russia – Ukraine – USA, which could be approved by the UN Security Council.
• Return to the Istanbul talks in 2022, with Ukrainian neutrality in exchange for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN.

As one source said, there are two choices: peace or war; and if there is no peace, then there will be more war.

Bloomberg: Russia Asks for a Role – The Proposal for China

Efforts to secure security guarantees for Ukraine, as part of the American initiative to end the war, have faced difficulties since their inception.

American, Ukrainian and European officials are discussing proposals for a post-war framework to protect Kiev, following the White House's statement that Putin appeared willing to accept Article 5-style guarantees for Ukraine, during his recent meeting with President Donald Trump in Alaska.

The Kremlin has not publicly confirmed this. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow should have a say in any security arrangements, leaving open the possibility of China's involvement. Zelensky immediately dismissed Beijing as a possible guarantor.

Lavrov brought up the idea of an agreement based on the principles of collective and indivisible security, recalling that Russia had supported a 2022 proposal that provided for the involvement of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council ( USA, Russia, China, Britain, France ).

European officials interpreted this stance as an attempt at delaying and expressed doubts about Putin's willingness to move forward with an agreement.

Trump is pushing for a direct Putin-Zelensky meeting, following the tete-a-tete with the Russian president in Alaska, where he abandoned the initial demand for a ceasefire before negotiations and raised the issue of territorial concessions.

The Ukrainian president's contacts with Trump at the White House led to a US commitment to participate in a security assurance scheme, leaving border issues for later.

Ukraine and its European partners see strong security guarantees as a key element of any agreement, as they could allow Kiev to make compromises it has so far rejected.

The proposal by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni provides that Ukraine's allies should decide within 24 hours whether to offer military assistance in the event of a new Russian attack, forming a mechanism equivalent to NATO's Article 5, but without full membership in NATO.