Putin's words about the front – that's what he wants in exchange

Vladimir Putin

Information: Putin willing to freeze the front – in exchange for Donetsk

Albin Almqvist

Updated 17.54 | Published 16.31

Putin made an offer to end the war in Ukraine during the meeting with Donald Trump.

The president is willing to freeze the front line in Ukraine.

In exchange, he wanted, among other things, that Ukraine leave Donetsk to Russia, according to sources to the Financial Times.

At the summit in Alaska on Friday evening, Vladimir Putin offered a deal to freeze the front lines in  Ukraine – in exchange for Ukraine withdrawing from the  Donetsk and Luhansk regions. This is what the Financial Times writes, referring to four sources with insight into the talks.

Trump is said to have passed on Putin's demands to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj during a phone call on Saturday, according to the newspaper.

Russia currently controls around 70 percent of the Donetsk region. However, the western part of the region remains under Ukrainian control and is described as very important for Ukraine's military operations and defense lines along the eastern front.

 

Russian President in Alaska. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Putin: Did not give up the most important demands

Putin is said to have made it clear during the meeting that he has not abandoned his "fundamental demands" to "resolve the root causes of the conflict" - demands that would mean the dissolution of Ukraine's current state and the withdrawal of NATO's expansion eastward.

But according to a former senior Kremlin official, the Russian president is prepared to compromise on territorial issues if he believes that the other side has taken into account the "fundamental causes" of the war, writes the Financial Times.