Vladimir Putin has bluntly rejected a key element of Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine for one specific reason, it has been claimed. Kremlin insiders have revealed the Russian leader’s “shocking” rationale: he believes Moscow is winning on the battlefield and sees no need to make concessions. After five hours of talks in the Kremlin on Tuesday between Putin and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov admitted that “so far, no compromise version of a peace settlement has been found” on Russia’s demand to keep the four partially occupied Ukrainian regions—Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson—which Moscow illegally annexed in 2022.
Without territorial concessions from Kyiv, Ushakov said, the Kremlin sees “no resolution to the crisis.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted on Wednesday it was “not correct” to claim Putin had outright rejected the American plan. However, he refused to elaborate, stressing that “the quieter these negotiations are conducted, the more productive they will be.” He added that the talks were a normal process of finding compromise, noting: “Some things were accepted, some things were marked as unacceptable.”
The deadlock triggered immediate fury from Ukraine and its European allies. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper accused Putin of “bluster and bloodshed” and demanded he “come to the table and support a just and lasting peace.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged the Russian leader to “stop wasting the world’s time.”
Just a day earlier, Putin had accused European nations of sabotaging US-led peace efforts, warning that Moscow would be ready for war with Europe if provoked.
European ministers meeting in Brussels showed little patience. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said it was “pretty obvious that Putin doesn’t want any kind of peace,” while Finland’s Elina Valtonen noted Russia had made “no concessions” and called for a full ceasefire as the first confidence-building step.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed allies would continue heavy military support to Kyiv, announcing that Canada, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands were jointly committing hundreds of millions of pounds to buy more US weapons for Ukraine.
Mr Trump insisted the Kremlin talks had been positive, telling reporters that Witkoff and Kushner left Moscow “very strongly” convinced Putin wants a deal.
The US envoys are due to meet Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, in Miami on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky struck a cautiously optimistic tone, saying “the world clearly feels that the possibility of ending the war exists” but stressing that peace required “constructive diplomacy plus pressure on the aggressor.”
A leaked US peace proposal last month—widely criticised in Europe for tilting heavily towards Moscow—had reportedly offered Ukraine NATO membership in exchange for ceding the occupied territories and accepting permanent military restrictions. Kyiv immediately dismissed it as a non-starter.
Analysts warn that Russia’s battlefield momentum, combined with Mr Trump’s reluctance to donate (rather than sell) weapons to Ukraine, is strengthening Putin’s conviction that time is on his side.
Speaking earlier this week, Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of the Hope For Ukraine think tank, warned: “The peace talks are less about finding middle ground and more about a strategic play to weaken Western support and pressure Kyiv into accepting unfavourable terms.
“Putin’s ambition extends beyond the current frontlines; he views an independent, sovereign Ukraine — especially one aligned with the West—as an existential threat that must be neutralised. While he may engage with the US framework as a “basis for future agreements,” this mainly serves to keep Washington occupied while Russian forces continue their advance.”
The human cost continued overnight. Russian drones killed two civilians and critically wounded two more in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, while falling debris from intercepted Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at a Russian oil depot in Tambov region.
