Putin unwilling to make concessions on U.S. “peace plan” — reports

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not prepared to compromise on three key elements of a U.S.-proposed “peace plan,” NBC News reported, citing a Russian source familiar with the talks. Moscow rejects concessions on the status of Donbas, limits on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, and international recognition of Russia-held territories.

On Dec. 2, Putin met in the Kremlin with U.S. envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who brought a draft plan coordinated with Kyiv.

ABC News reported that earlier talks between Ukrainian and U.S. diplomats in Florida made no progress on territorial issues. According to CNN, Ukraine refused to cap its military at 600,000 troops and rejected a demand to renounce NATO membership.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the territorial question “the most difficult.” Putin said last week that fighting would stop only when Ukrainian forces withdraw from “occupied territories” and that a legally binding deal with the current Kyiv government is “impossible.”