US-Russia deal may cement Putin’s Ukraine gains: Report

The US and Russia are aiming to reach a deal to halt the war in Ukraine that would lock in Moscow’s occupation of territory seized during its military invasion, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

US and Russian officials are working towards an agreement on territories for a planned summit meeting between US President Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as early as next week, the report said.

Putin claims four Ukrainian regions — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which he annexed in 2014. His forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions at present.

Accepting the loss of around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory would be very painful and politically challenging for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Under the putative deal, Russia would halt its offensive in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along current battlelines.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, a close ally of Ukraine, said earlier on Friday that a pause in the conflict could be close. He was speaking after talks with Zelenskyy.

Putin spoke to the leaders of China, India and three ex-Soviet states on Friday in a flurry of calls to brief them on his contacts with the US about the war in Ukraine. Putin met Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Wednesday, after which the Kremlin said a summit between Putin and Trump could take place as early as next week.

No venue, date or agenda have been announced. China’s President Xi Jinping told Putin in a phone call that China was pleased to see Russia and the US maintaining contact. China is a major backer of Russia in its confrontation with the West. The Kremlin said that Putin also discussed his talks with Witkoff with PM Narendra Modi.