US to demand Putin accept Ukraine's right to military force

The U.S. will demand that Russia accept Ukraine’s right to develop its own, adequately equipped, army and defense industry as part of a peace agreement, according to people familiar with the matter, pushing back on Russia’s insistence that the country largely demilitarize as a condition to end the war.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia to raise the issue with President Vladimir Putin, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

It’s a signal that President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking some concessions from the Kremlin, as well as Ukraine, as it tries to end a war that’s now into its fourth year. Critics have thus far viewed the U.S. proposals as tilted toward Russia, including the Trump administration’s insistence that Ukraine give up its aspirations to join the NATO military alliance.

Agreeing to let Kyiv maintain its military, as demanded by Ukraine and its European allies, would mean Putin would have to give up on his announced goal for a “demilitarization” of the country, one of his main stated war aims. The outcome on that issue may depend on Russia’s willingness to let Ukraine independently determine the scope of its future forces.

As part of a draft agreement discussed in the weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Putin’s government proposed putting strict limits on the future size of Ukraine’s military in a move that critics said would have left it helpless in the face of future threats. Those proposals would have seen the size of Ukraine’s army reduced by more than half. Its number of tanks, artillery and rocket launchers also would have been slashed.

The Trump administration also wants Moscow to return Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which it seized early in its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022. The facility would then fall under U.S. control to administer energy to both sides, said the people. They added that details of the plans had yet to be completed and could still change.

An administration official said Witkoff’s outreach to Putin is part of Trump’s efforts to make peace, move beyond past failed strategies and end the deadly conflict. Spokespeople for the U.S. National Security Council and the State Department didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Trump said Thursday that he’s “using a lot of pressure on both” sides in the war. He said he thinks Putin “wants to make a deal. We’re going to find out very soon.” Asked what concessions Russia has offered, Trump said, “Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country — pretty big concession.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in an interview with CBS News, said there were “several signs that we are moving in the right direction” toward a deal — while conceding that Russia still saw issues that needed to be negotiated.

“The statement by the president mentions a deal, and we are ready to reach a deal, but there are still some specific points — elements of this deal which need to be fine-tuned,” Lavrov said.

In addition to letting Ukraine maintain its military, the U.S. wants to ensure that it has passage over the Dnieper River and that land occupied by Russia in the Kharkiv region is returned. Putin has demanded recognition of the entirety of the Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Kherson regions, despite having failed to fully occupy them.

Russia has continued to bomb Ukrainian cities even as talks have continued, and as it has insisted that it’s prepared for peace. Overnight, Russia launched the biggest airstrike of the year against Ukraine, targeting Kyiv and killing at least 12 people.

That forced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cut short a visit to South Africa on Thursday. Before he left, Zelenskyy told reporters that “we can’t talk about red lines without an unconditional ceasefire.”

At a meeting in Paris last week, Trump’s team presented Europe and Ukraine with a proposal to end the war that would also see the U.S. recognize Ukraine’s Crimea region as Russian while freezing most other occupied territories along current battle lines, effectively leaving them under Moscow’s control, Bloomberg News previously reported.

Crimea was taken by the Kremlin in 2014 following an invasion and subsequent referendum held under occupation, and the international community has resisted recognizing the peninsula as Russian to avoid legitimizing the illegal annexation. Zelenskyy has repeatedly said he won’t cede territory to Moscow.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social this week that nobody was asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea, and he lashed out at the Ukrainian president, accusing him of undermining peace negotiations.

“I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy. I hope that Zelenskyy — I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy. So far, it’s been harder,” Trump said on Wednesday in the Oval Office.

Then on Thursday, Trump criticized Putin for the latest round of attacks on Ukraine.

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday. “Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”

The U.S. has indicated that any peace agreement would need security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure that a deal holds, without specifying exactly what form such assurances would take. It has also proposed lifting sanctions on Moscow if there’s a deal.

The UK and France have been leading efforts to form a postwar “reassurance force” in Ukraine, but the U.S. has so far not offered to contribute to it or to provide Kyiv with military aid in the future, some of the people said. Additional options to guarantee an agreement could include a non-European peacekeeping force, some of the same people added. Russia has said it won’t accept troops from NATO countries in Ukraine.

Trump and other U.S. officials have warned that they will walk away from the talks if a deal isn’t reached soon.

“Now if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people, and we’re going to just take a pass,”’ Trump said at the White House last week. “But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”

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(With assistance from Kateryna Chursina, Stephanie Lai and Hadriana Lowenkron.)

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