Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he was receptive to the latest U.S. plan to end the conflict in Ukraine, but insisted the country's forces would have to give up territory.
Putin made the comments to reporters during a visit to the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan ahead of U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow next week. Witkoff is expected to discuss a version of the Trump administration's 28-point peace plan that's been criticized for allowing Russia to keep territory seized by force and barring Ukraine from joining the western NATO military alliance.
The Russian leader said the U.S. government is now taking some of its positions into account and that the U.S. plan "can be used" as the basis for future agreements, the state-run TASS news agency reported. However, the plan needed to be refined into "diplomatic language," while other points were non-starters.
Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukraine, about 1,500 square miles, since launching its invasion nearly four years ago. Putin said Russian forces would continue their advance in the eastern Donbass region, The Moscow Times reported.
"Ukrainian forces will have to leave the territories they currently occupy, and then the fighting will stop," he said. "If they don't, we will achieve this by military means."
