Russia may walk out of the talks if Ukraine refuses to withdraw its troops from Donbas, Bloomberg reports

Russia is considering the possibility of withdrawing from the negotiations if Ukraine refuses to pull its troops out of the Donetsk region.

Bloomberg reported this, citing sources.

According to two interlocutors close to the Kremlin, the next round of talks scheduled for next week will be decisive in determining whether the sides can agree on terms to end the war.

If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not make concessions, Moscow will likely leave the process, they said.

“Russia is ready to sign a draft memorandum on a peace agreement if Ukraine agrees to withdraw its troops from the eastern part of Donetsk region,” one source said. After that, a meeting at the presidential level—Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Volodymyr Zelensky—could follow to approve the agreements and begin a mutual withdrawal of forces, the sources said.

Moscow may also agree to U.S.-led monitoring of the ceasefire, but it will not accept the deployment of foreign troops on Ukrainian territory and is prepared to drop its demand to limit the size of Ukraine’s army. Separate negotiations on the future of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant are continuing.

Russia is proposing a three-party scheme for distributing the plant’s electricity output among Russia, the United States, and Ukraine. Kyiv supports a “50–50” option involving the United States, which could share supplies with Moscow.

But the main issue remains territorial—the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donetsk region.

As the media have reported earlier, Zelensky could agree to this only under very strong pressure from Trump.

Whether such pressure will be applied (especially given the outbreak of war in Iran) is the key question on which the further course of the negotiations depends.