“Russia will continue to insist on Donbas being placed under its control,” Putin said

Moscow will not abandon its condition for concluding a peace agreement in Ukraine under which it would be given control over the entire Donbas.

This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with representatives of Russian business.

According to media reports, Putin expressed readiness to make concessions that he agreed to in Anchorage. Apparently, this refers to dropping demands that Ukraine’s Armed Forces withdraw from the entire territory of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

“That is, the point is that ‘Donbas is ours.’ It was said that ‘the question of the status of the Kramatorsk–Kostiantynivka–Sloviansk hub is not up for discussion.’ But in the rest, a partial exchange of territories from the Russian side is also not ruled out,” wrote Kommersant journalist Andrey Kolesnikov.

Putin also said that “the Americans have backed away from some of their own proposals as a result of negotiations with the Europeans.” The Russian president viewed this as a sign of weakness. The newspaper did not specify which particular proposals the Americans had backed away from.

Earlier, Western media reported that Washington had agreed to the deployment of European troops in Ukraine, although the original U.S. peace plan provided for a ban on stationing foreign troops in Ukraine. However, the White House has not yet confirmed this information.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post, analyzing the draft peace agreement presented by Volodymyr Zelensky, concluded that Kyiv is ready to withdraw troops from eastern Ukraine.