Putin Demands Donbas Withdrawal, NATO Rejection, and No Western Troops in Ukraine

Moscow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly demanded that Ukraine surrender full control of the Donbas region, abandon its NATO ambitions, remain neutral, and bar Western troops from entering the country, Reuters reported citing three Kremlin-linked sources.

Putin presented these conditions during his first summit with former U.S. President Donald Trump in over four years, held in Alaska on Friday. The closed-door meeting, which lasted nearly three hours, focused largely on exploring a potential compromise to end the war in Ukraine.

While neither leader shared detailed outcomes publicly, sources said Putin offered a revised proposal compared to his 2024 demands, which sought recognition of Russian control over Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. This time, Putin limited his territorial requirement to Ukraine’s withdrawal from the remaining Donbas areas. In return, Moscow would freeze the current battle lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Russia currently controls about 88% of Donbas and 73% of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, according to U.S. estimates. As part of the deal, Moscow is also prepared to withdraw from smaller areas of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk.

Alongside territorial concessions, Putin is insisting on legally binding guarantees: that Ukraine will never join NATO, that the alliance halts any eastward expansion, that Kyiv accepts limits on its armed forces, and that no Western troops be deployed as peacekeepers inside Ukraine.

Kyiv, however, remains firm. President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly dismissed any proposal that requires ceding internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, calling Donbas a strategic “fortress” against deeper Russian advances. He has also stressed that NATO membership is enshrined in Ukraine’s constitution and beyond Moscow’s authority to decide.

The White House and NATO declined immediate comment on Moscow’s reported proposals.

Analysts remain skeptical. Samuel Charap, Russia policy expert at RAND, said the demand for Ukraine’s withdrawal from Donbas was politically and strategically impossible for Kyiv. “Openness to peace on terms unacceptable to the other side could be more performance for Trump than a genuine compromise,” he noted.

Despite doubts, Kremlin sources told Reuters the Alaska summit represented the “best chance for peace since the war began,” with Putin signaling readiness for limited concessions. Trump, who has pledged to end the war quickly if re-elected, said after the meeting he believed Putin “wants it ended” and expressed confidence a settlement could be reached.

Still, major uncertainties remain: whether Ukraine will agree to cede more land, whether Washington or its allies would recognize Russian-held areas, and whether Zelensky retains the authority to sign a peace deal amid questions over his extended presidency.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, three years after annexing Crimea. The conflict has since claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and left Russia occupying roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory—an area about the size of Ohio.

Kremlin aides suggested possible peace frameworks could involve a trilateral U.S.-Russia-Ukraine deal endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, or a revival of the abandoned 2022 Istanbul agreements, where Ukraine considered permanent neutrality in exchange for international security guarantees.

“There are only two paths,” one source told Reuters. “War or peace. And without peace, there will only be more war.”

News Source : Information for this article was gathered from a variety of reliable news outlets.