Vladimir Putin is demanding Ukraine surrender the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces as a condition for ending the war in Ukraine.
The Russian leader told Donald Trump that he would be prepared to stop fighting on the rest of the frontline if Ukraine gave in to the demand and address “root causes of the conflict”.
The concessions were discussed at the highly-anticipated summit of the two leaders in Alaska on Friday, which ended with no peace deal despite nearly three hours of talks.
Sources very close to the meeting told The Independent the dramatic move appears to have been endorsed by Mr Trump as a means to bring an end to the war.
They said that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky would want to “clarify this on Monday” when he meets with Mr Trump on Monday in Washington DC.
Mr Putin’s condition for Ukrainian troops to withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk, which make up the Donbas region, follow circulated reports on the demand ahead of Friday’s summit.
The Russian president also said he would freeze the frontline in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where his forces occupy large territory.
However, Putin made clear he would not fall back on core demands to “resolve root causes of the conflict”, that includes Ukraine becoming a neutral state and abandoning Nato aspirations.
The Donetsk region has been centre of much of recent fighting, with Russian troops making a sudden thrust near the eastern town of Dobrophillya in the days before the summit.
While Russia controls almost all of Luhansk, it holds about 70 per cent of Donetsk.
Last week, Mr Zelensky insisted he would reject any proposal to withdraw from the industrial Donbas region, claiming it would “open a bridgehead” for Russian offensive.
All eyes will now turn to his meeting with Mr Trump on Monday.
After Friday’s summit, the US president said a permanent peace deal was now the best way to end the war, appearing to abandon aims at the summit for a ceasefire agreement.
He also told Fox News in an interview that he would advise Mr Zelensky to make a deal. “Yeah. Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” he said when asked what he would say.
