Russian President Vladimir Putin made “major concessions“ to his American counterpart Donald Trump during their meeting in Alaska on August 15. This was stated by US Vice President JD Vance, quoted by Agence France-Presse, BTA reports.
“I think the Russians made significant concessions to President Trump, for the first time since the beginning of the conflict three and a half years ago. They actually want to be flexible on some of their main demands“, Vance said in an interview with the American television NBC.
According to him, “the war is not in anyone's interest, neither Europe, nor the United States, nor Russia and Ukraine“. Vance, however, did not specify the details of the agreements.
After the meeting, Trump announced "great progress with Russia", also without going into details. A little later, the US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff reported that Moscow had expressed readiness for "territorial concessions" in five Ukrainian regions.
The Russian side also acknowledged flexibility on a number of points proposed by Trump, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who at the same time accused Western countries of trying to "impede" the peace process.
Lavrov also repeated Moscow's traditional conditions, that Russia be among the guarantors of the security of Ukraine, which in turn must give up its ambitions for NATO membership. Kiev categorically rejects these demands, including the Kremlin's territorial claims.
Meanwhile, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that the Kremlin has not publicly committed to a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, despite Trump's claims. According to the ISW, the Russian Foreign Ministry's statements effectively confirm Moscow's unwillingness to hold such a meeting on the US president's preferred timeline.