Ukraine presses for ceasefire as Russia reportedly offers concession

KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 22 that Ukraine was ready for talks with Russia “in any format” once a ceasefire was set, while the Financial Times reported President Vladimir Putin had offered to halt Russia’s invasion at the current front lines.

Both sides are trying to demonstrate progress towards ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, now well into its fourth year, after US President Donald Trump said

he could walk away from efforts to make peace

if there was no breakthrough.

“We are ready to record that, after a ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format so that there are no dead ends,” Mr Zelensky told reporters in the presidential office in Kyiv.

He stressed that any discussions regarding the terms of a peace deal should happen only once the fighting has stopped and that it would be impossible to agree on everything quickly.

The Ukrainian President said his delegation would have a mandate to discuss a full or partial ceasefire at talks with European and US officials in London on April 23, in a follow-up to last week’s Paris meeting.

At the same time, the White House said Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will again travel to Russia later this week to hold talks with Mr Putin.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that Mr Putin offered at a meeting with Mr Witkoff in St Petersburg in April to halt Russia’s invasion across the front line and relinquish its claims to full control of four Ukrainian regions.

Russia only partially controls Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions it has claimed as its own during the full-scale invasion.

Mr Putin has publicly demanded that Ukraine withdraw its forces from Kyiv-held areas in the regions.

The FT said the proposal was the first formal indication Mr Putin has given since the war’s early months that Russia could step back from its maximalist demands.

It cited European officials briefed on US efforts as saying Russia’s apparent concession could be a negotiating tactic.

The Washington Post reported on April 22, citing people familiar with the deliberations, that Washington has proposed recognising Russia’s annexation of Crimea and freezing the war’s front lines as part of a settlement.

The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, is not one of the four regions in Mr Putin’s offer reported by the FT.

Mr Zelensky has long said Ukraine will not recognise Russia’s occupation of Crimea and other territories as that would violate the country’s Constitution.

However, he has also suggested that Ukraine could win back control over the areas diplomatically over time, rather than by military force.

The US presented the proposals to Kyiv at a meeting with Western countries in Paris last week, the Washington Post said.

Other thorny issues that complicate the peace process include the Kremlin’s insistence that Ukraine become formally neutral and not join the Nato military alliance.

Ukraine also hopes a foreign contingent will be deployed to ensure the peace settlement is enforced, serving as a security guarantee against any further Russian aggression.

Moscow has repeatedly said it would not accept that.

In an apparent change of plans, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the talks in London, a State Department spokesperson said on April 22, adding that Washington’s Ukraine envoy, General Keith Kellogg, would attend.

Mr Trump and Mr Rubio said last week that Washington could abandon its peace effort unless there was progress within days.

Mr Trump on April 20 said that “hopefully” there would be a deal “this week”.

Separately, Mr Zelensky said he would be ready to meet Mr Trump when they attend the funeral of Pope Francis along with other world leaders this week. REUTERS