President Vladimir Putin has signaled potential flexibility on some Ukrainian territories under Russian control while insisting on claiming the entire Donbas region, according to a report by Kommersant.
The Russian leader outlined his position during a late-night Kremlin meeting with top businessmen on 24 December, Kommersant correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov reported. Putin told the gathering that "the Russian side is still ready to make the concessions that he made in Anchorage," declaring that "Donbas is ours," according to the newspaper.
Beyond Donbas, Kolesnikov wrote, "a partial exchange of territories from the Russian side is not ruled out."
The remarks come as negotiations continue between Russian, Ukrainian, and US officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 25 December that Ukrainian and US delegations had moved closer to finalizing a 20-point plan during Miami talks over the weekend, though significant gaps remain.
Zelenskyy said the sides had not reached agreement on Ukrainian demands to cede Donbas territories still under Kyiv's control or on the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russian forces control.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to end the conflict, and his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner have been negotiating with Russia, Ukraine, and European powers. Russian officials have referred to unspecified "understandings" reached between Putin and Trump at an August summit in Anchorage, Alaska, though full details of US proposals have not been disclosed.
Russia currently controls all of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, about 90% of Donbas, 75% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, and portions of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, according to Russian estimates.
Putin said on 19 December that a peace deal should follow principles he outlined in 2024: Ukraine withdrawing from all of Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, and Kyiv officially abandoning its NATO membership aspirations.
According to Kommersant, Putin also discussed the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear facility, during the business leaders meeting. The Russian president said joint Russian-US management of the plant was under discussion, the newspaper reported.
Putin told the businessmen that the United States had expressed interest in crypto mining near the plant and that the facility should be used to partially supply Ukraine, Kommersant said.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what the Kremlin describes as a "special military operation."
