Putin breaks his silence on Ukraine peace plan, says Moscow ready for ‘serious’ talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken his silence on a U.S.-backed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, saying Moscow is ready for “serious” discussions about the draft proposals.

Putin said Thursday that the outlines of a draft peace plan that has been reached by the U.S. and Ukraine could be the basis of a deal that ends the almost four-year long conflict.

“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said in comments made during a trip to Kyrgyzstan and translated by Reuters.

The president added that the U.S. appeared to be taking Russia’s position on a peace settlement “into account” and that Moscow was ready for “serious discussions” when U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff travels to Moscow next week for talks.

It’s the first time Putin has publicly addressed a peace plan since a flurry of diplomacy between the U.S. and Ukraine in the last few days. Those talks came after reports last week of a U.S.-Russia devised 28-point peace plan, which appeared to heavily favor Russia’s demands.

Ukraine and its European allies’ scrambled to mount a response, amending the plan and inserting counter proposals which were discussed in Geneva last weekend with a U.S. delegation led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.