Steve Rosenberg: Putin uncompromising as leaked plan reaches Moscow

On Thursday, a US Pentagon delegation was in Kyiv. They were talking to President Zelensky about a draft plan to end the war in Ukraine.

The same day, on Russian state TV, President Putin was in military fatigues. He was talking to his army chiefs about fighting on.

“We have our tasks, our goals,” the Kremlin leader declared. “The chief one is the unconditional achievement of the aims of the special military operation.”

The Izvestia newspaper called President Putin’s visit to a command post “a signal to America that he’s prepared to negotiate on Ukraine, on Russia’s terms”.

Which brings us back to the peace plan.

On Friday night, President Putin said he had seen the US settlement plan for Ukraine.

Addressing a meeting of the Russian security council in Moscow, he described the American proposals as a “modernised” version of the plan discussed with Trump at the Alaska summit between the leaders in August.

President Putin said he thought the plans could form the basis of final peace settlement.

According to drafts of the peace proposal, Ukraine would cede to Russia parts of the Donbass still under Kyiv’s control; the Ukrainian armed forces would be reduced in size and Ukraine would vow not to join Nato.

“The Russian military’s effective work should convince Zelensky and his regime that it’s better to strike a deal and do it now,” President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously told journalists on a Kremlin conference call.