Ukrainians, including families of prisoners of war and missing persons, participate in a rally in front of the US embassy in Kyiv on 15 August 2025, ahead of the Putin-Trump summit. Photo: EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO
Vladimir Putin named the international recognition of Crimea and the full withdrawal of Kyiv from the partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine as prerequisites for ending the war during the meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday, Reuters reported on Sunday.
Citing two anonymous sources “briefed on Moscow’s thinking” following the discussions between European, US and Ukrainian leaders after the Trump-Putin summit, Reuters wrote that Russia was prepared to relinquish “tiny pockets” of occupied Ukrainian territory in northern Sumy and northeastern Kharkiv regions, while freezing the frontlines in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
The sources also said that Putin would expect at least some of the sanctions imposed on Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to be lifted, though it was not immediately clear whether this applied to US sanctions as well as European ones.
The agency noted that Putin’s demands would present “huge challenges” for Ukraine’s leadership to accept. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is due to travel to Washington on Monday, said in a post on Saturday that Ukraine was ready to “work as productively as possible for the sake of peace”, though reactions from Ukrainian officials following the summit have been muted at best.
Ukraine has long maintained that the withdrawal of its troops from Donbas, where fighting has continued for over ten years since spring 2014, is largely inconceivable for its population. According to recent opinion polls, 52% of Ukrainians are categorically opposed to any territorial concessions in exchange for peace, while 38% are open to compromise. Furthermore, 68% of respondents rejected the Ukrainian recognition of Russia’s control over its occupied territories, while 78% opposed concessions regarding any territories still controlled by Ukraine.
Zelensky, in turn, has repeatedly stressed that he would not agree to territorial concessions, noting that Ukrainians would not “gift their land to the occupier.”
However, on Monday, an unnamed Western official told The Telegraph that Zelensky could agree to cede territory already occupied by Russia — namely, freezing the frontline where it is — in exchange for weapons deliveries and a path to NATO membership. This would once again clash with Putin’s demands, who seemed to be open to Ukraine receiving “some kind of security guarantees” but was strongly opposed to its joining NATO, according to Reuters.
Pending the outcome of the Trump-Zelensky meeting on Monday, a trilateral summit between Trump, Zelensky and Putin may be held on 22 August, Axios reported on Saturday, though this has not been confirmed by official sources.