Putin sees US peace plan as starting point as he warns Ukraine to withdraw

US proposals to end the war between Russia and Ukraine offer a starting point for talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, as he told Ukrainian forces to pull back or be overrun by Russia’s bigger army.

“We need to sit down and discuss this seriously,” Mr Putin told reporters at the end of a three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan. “Every word matters.”

He described US President Donald Trump’s plan as “a set of issues put forward for discussion” rather than a draft agreement.

“If Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy, hostilities will cease. If they don’t withdraw, we will achieve this by force,” the Russian leader said.

Kremlin officials have had little to say so far about the peace plan put forward last week by Mr Trump. Since Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, Mr Putin has shown no willingness to budge from his goals in Ukraine despite Mr Trump’s push for a settlement.

Mr Putin has previously demanded that Ukraine completely withdraw from the entirety of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions before Russia considers any sort of “peace negotiations” — notably including areas of each of those oblasts that Russia does not occupy.

He also wants to keep Ukraine from joining Nato and hosting any Western troops.

A senior Kremlin official confirmed that US special envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow next week as efforts pick up speed to find a consensus on ending the nearly four-year war.

Representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine held talks earlier this week in the United Arab Emirates.

Ukrainian officials did not confirm whether US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who in recent weeks has played a high-profile role in the peace efforts, would be in Kyiv in the coming days, as US President Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday.

Mr Trump’s plan for ending the war became public last week, setting off diplomatic manoeuvring. The initial version appeared heavily slanted toward Russian demands for halting Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.

After weekend talks in Geneva between US and Ukrainian officials, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the plan could be “workable”, although key points remain unresolved. A Ukrainian official said Mr Zelensky hoped to meet Mr Trump in the coming days.

Mr Witkoff’s role in the peace efforts came under a renewed spotlight on Tuesday when a report indicated that he coached Mr Ushakov, the Putin aide, on how Russia’s leader should pitch to Mr Trump on the Ukraine peace plan.

Mr Trump described Mr Witkoff’s reported approach to the Russians in the call as “standard” negotiating procedure.

“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia,” Mr Trump told reporters Tuesday night. “That’s what a dealmaker does.”