Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday the war with Ukraine could end if Ukrainian troops withdraw from territory Moscow claims. Otherwise, he said, his army will take it by force.
"We need to sit down and discuss this seriously," Putin told reporters at the end of a visit to Kyrgyzstan. "Every word matters. If Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy, hostilities will cease. If they don't withdraw, we will achieve this by force."
Putin has previously demanded that Ukraine pull out of the entire Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions before he considers any form of "peace negotiations," including areas of those regions that Russia does not currently hold.
Putin said he might be open to elements of a U.S. plan to end the war but issued a blunt warning. Russian forces, he said, will continue their advance in the Donbas region if Kyiv refuses to accept his conditions for a ceasefire.
He also repeated his longstanding view that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is no longer a legitimate leader, arguing that Ukraine's postponement of its presidential election under martial law makes it "legally impossible" to sign an agreement with him.
"We want to sign an agreement with Ukraine, but that is practically impossible, legally impossible," he said. "We need the decision to be recognized at the international level."
His comments come amid a renewed burst of diplomacy triggered by last week's leak of a 28-point peace plan drafted by the Trump administration and reportedly circulated among Kremlin officials. The plan has since been pared down to 19 points, and U.S. officials have hinted that Ukraine agreed to the revised version.
Putin denied that Russian officials helped craft the original U.S. proposal following his August summit with President Donald Trump in Alaska.
"There was no draft agreement. There was a set of issues proposed for discussion and finalizing," he said, adding that Kremlin officials only received and reviewed the proposal after it was leaked to the media.
Although he did not say whether he supports all the provisions, Putin said "in general we agree that it can serve as the basis for future agreements," suggesting some elements align with Moscow's position. Still, he criticized parts of the framework as lacking a serious legal tone, citing a clause that would require Russia to codify a policy of nonaggression toward Europe and Ukraine.
"It's one thing to say in general terms that Russia is not planning to attack Europe. To us, that sounds ridiculous, as we never planned to," he said. "But if they want to hear it from us, fine, we can put that down in writing. No problem."
Analysts believe Putin is attempting to wait out Western support for Ukraine's war effort. President Donald Trump has signaled he may walk away from efforts to stop the fighting if there is no progress. European officials argue Putin is stalling because Russia wants to seize more territory before accepting any agreement.
Russian officials have claimed battlefield momentum, even though the slow advance has been costly in troops and armor.
The Institute for the Study of War on Wednesday cast doubt on Russian assertions that its invasion is unstoppable, noting that Moscow is still struggling to capture cities in eastern Donetsk.
"Data on Russian forces' rate of advance indicates that a Russian military victory in Ukraine is not inevitable, and a rapid Russian seizure of the rest of Donetsk Oblast is not imminent," the Washington-based think tank said. "Recent Russian advances elsewhere on the front line have largely been opportunistic and exploited seasonal weather conditions."
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