Putin breaks his silence on Ukraine peace plan, says Moscow ready for ‘serious’ talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken his silence on a U.S.-backed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, saying Moscow is ready for “serious” discussions about the draft proposals.

Putin said Thursday that the outlines of a fledgling peace plan that has been reached by the U.S. and Ukraine could be the basis of a deal that ends the almost four-year long conflict.

“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said in comments made during a trip to Kyrgyzstan and translated by Reuters.

The president added that the U.S. appeared to be taking Russia’s position on a peace settlement “into account” and that Moscow was ready for “serious discussions” when U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff travels to Moscow next week for talks.

It’s the first time Putin has publicly addressed a peace plan since a flurry of diplomacy between the U.S. and Ukraine in the last few days. Those talks came after reports last week of a U.S.-Russia devised 28-point peace plan, which appeared to heavily favor Russia’s demands.

Ukraine and its European allies’ scrambled to mount a response, amending the plan and inserting counter proposals which were discussed in Geneva last weekend with a U.S. delegation led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The current draft plan, which has reportedly been slimmed down to 19 key proposals, appears to have received Ukraine’s tentative backing, putting the ball back in Russia’s court as to whether it could accept the framework to build upon.

On Wednesday, Putin’s close aide Yuri Ushakov had claimed that Russia had not even seen an official version of the latest U.S.-backed draft deal for Ukraine, but that it had seen an unofficial version.

Regarding the plan it had seen, Ushakov said the Kremlin viewed some aspects of the plan positively while “several of its points require serious analysis.”

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said Moscow welcomed U.S. efforts on peace proposals but said “there are no concessions on key issues on the Ukraine settlement,” suggesting there could be some distance to travel before a deal is actually reached.

Putin on Thursday also praised Russian advances in Ukraine and told reporters that the fighting in Ukraine would stop only when Ukrainian troops withdraw from their positions in key areas.

If they did not do so, then Russian forces would achieve their objectives by force, he added.

Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov warned on Wednesday against jumping to conclusions regarding an end to the war, which Russia launched when it invaded Ukraine in Feb. 2022.

“Wait. It’s too early to say that,” Peskov told reporters, state news agency TASS reported, when asked whether this was the closest Russia and Ukraine had ever been to concluding a peace agreement. 

CNBC has contacted the Kremlin for further comment and is awaiting a response.

Multiple outlets reported Tuesday that a Ukrainian delegation that had held talks with U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday appeared to tentatively support the basis of a U.S.-backed peace plan — though key details remained unresolved.

ABC News and CBS News both reported an unnamed U.S. official had said that the Ukrainians “have agreed” to the deal, while adding there were still points that had to be ironed out. It was unclear if both stories quoted the same U.S. official.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said later Tuesday that Kyiv was ready to advance the peace framework, Reuters reported, citing a copy of a speech the president gave to a coalition of allied countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump said at the White House on Tuesday, “I think we’re getting very close to a deal. We’ll find out … I think we’re making progress.”

In a Truth Social post later Tuesday afternoon, Trump said, “there are only a few remaining points of disagreement.”