Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has claimed that, in addition to calls for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he received new proposals on ending Russia's war against Ukraine.
Source: Putin in an interview with Kremlin propagandist Pavel Zarubin, the transcript of which was posted on the Kremlin website
Quote: "There are also new proposals. Some of them I am ready to name. For example, a halt to strikes deep into territories on both sides."
Details: According to Putin, this is due to the fact that Russian "strikes deep into Ukrainian territory are far more powerful, impactful and… destructive, leading to truly serious consequences".
"Another proposal – to limit combat operations, note please, to only four areas, that is, to conduct combat operations only in Kherson Oblast, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic and to cease combat operations on all other territories," Putin said.
He claims the reason for this is clear to him, attributing it to what he describes as a "catastrophic shortage of manpower in the Armed Forces of Ukraine".
"Because if we agree to this (limiting the war to four oblasts – ed.), this would allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to withdraw their troops from Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts, as well as from certain sections of the state border, and redeploy these units to the four aforementioned regions," Putin said.
He noted that this "is not part of his plans", but added that he allegedly "carefully considers… every proposal that comes from that side".
Putin also repeated his customary claims that the Russian forces are allegedly advancing along the entire front line and that they have "just over 10 km" remaining to the city of Sumy and from "2.5 to 4-5 km" to Kupiansk, near the entrance sign where Zelenskyy was photographed in December 2025.
The Russian ruler said the main objective of his forces is the "final liberation" (the term Russians use for the occupation of Ukrainian territories – ed.) of Donbas and Novorossiya while failing to mention that this objective has remained beyond the reach of the Russians for more than four years.
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