Putin Signals Openness To Dialogue After Receiving Trump's Ukraine Peace Proposals

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide spoke to officials of US administration after Moscow received US-backed proposals about Ukrainian peace deal, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Kremlin foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, spoke by telephone to several members of the administration of US President Donald Trump but did not mention when the call took place.

Reuters quoted Peskov saying Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev brought paper copies of US proposals for peace back to Moscow after a meeting in Miami at the weekend – and the details were being analysed by the Kremlin.

“The information was analysed, and on behalf of President Putin, contact took place between representatives of the administrations

of Russia and the United States,” Peskov said. “It was agreed to continue the dialogue.”

Speaking on the report, he said the Ukrainian peace discussions were touched upon “in general” and mentioned at the meeting.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported Putin has informed some of Russia’s top businessmen that he might be open to swapping parts of territory controlled by Russian forces in Ukraine but that he wanted the whole of Donbas.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he plans to meet his US counterpart in Florida on Sunday as part of the ongoing efforts to end the nearly four-year war with Russia.

Speaking to reporters, Zelenskyy said though he could not confirm whether the Sunday’s meeting would lead to a firm agreement but the two sides would aim to “finalise as much as we can”.

In a video posted on X on Christmas Eve, the Ukrainian leader said that “despite all the suffering that Russia has brought, it is not capable of occupying or bombing what matters most. That is our Ukrainian heart, our faith in one another, and our unity”.

In a veiled reference to Putin, Zelenskyy added, “Today, we all share one dream. And we make one wish – for all of us. ‘May he perish’, each of us may think to ourselves. But when we turn to God, of course, we ask for something greater, we ask for peace for Ukraine. We fight for it, we pray for it, we deserve it.”