Putin continues to press ahead with his maximalist demands, despite pressure from the United States for a peace deal. Russia still wants to take control of four regions of Ukraine that it has not fully occupied.
Bloomberg writes about this, citing sources in Moscow.
Putinʼs stance is a blow to the US President Donald Trumpʼs efforts to broker a ceasefire and end the full-scale war, as frustration grows in the US White House over the lack of progress in the talks.
Trumpʼs special envoy Steve Witkoff tried to convince Putin during lengthy talks in the Kremlin that Russia must agree to a ceasefire that would halt fighting along the current front line. But that didnʼt bring the desired result. According to one source, further direct contact between Putin and Trump is needed for progress.
The meeting between Witkoff and Putin was the fourth since February 2025. Immediately after, Trump optimistically declared that a deal to end the war was “very close”. However, he later said that Putin probably “doesn’t want to stop the war” and that the US may have to respond with further sanctions against Russia.
Russia currently believes that part of any peace agreement should be that the Kremlin will gain full control over the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson regions, and Crimea.
The US has proposed a possible peace plan in which Washington would recognize Crimea as part of Russia and effectively accept Russian control over captured parts of four Ukrainian regions. Under this plan, the war would “freeze” along the current front line.
However, according to European officials, Putin is not yet ready to give up his maximalist demands for Ukrainian territories. European officials believe that within two weeks it will become clear whether the US will be able to reach an agreement or whether the negotiations will break down and Washington will start to put more pressure on Moscow.
Western intelligence agencies warned that Putin was unlikely to accept compromises, but the Trump administration believed that economic benefits, including energy cooperation, could persuade the Kremlin to agree.
- The day before, on April 28, Russia publicly rejected Trumpʼs peace plan to end the war in Ukraine and put forward its own conditions.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.