Putin says Russia received proposal to limit Ukraine war to 4 regions

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Moscow has received a proposal to confine military operations in Ukraine to four regions and halt long-range strikes deep inside each other's territory, while warning that Kyiv will "pay" for its incursion into the Kursk region by losing land.

Four-region proposal

Speaking to state media outlet Vesti on Sunday, Putin said the proposal calls for restricting fighting to Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk while halting long-range strikes deep inside each other's territory. He noted that Russia's retaliatory strikes deep inside Ukrainian territory remain "much more powerful and sensitive" than Kyiv's attacks.

Putin said he does not exclude attempts by Ukrainian special forces to launch unexpected diversionary attacks aimed at diverting Russian resources. "We do not exclude the possibility of attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, unexpected, as the enemy believes, unexpected for us, diversionary attacks with limited tasks by special forces and with the aim of diverting our attention and our forces from solving the main task -- the final liberation of Donbas and Novorossiya," he said.

US negotiations

Putin stated that Moscow and Washington discussed possibilities for ending the conflict during last year's summit in Anchorage, though no agreements were signed. "But we discussed certain possibilities for ending the conflict in Ukraine. We were asked to accept the compromises formulated by American negotiators. Well, we agreed," he said. He added that Russia is awaiting the arrival of US representatives once the "hot phase" of the Iranian conflict ends, noting that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has also offered to assist in negotiations.

Kursk incursion

Putin warned that Ukraine would "pay" for its incursion into Russia's Kursk region by losing territory that Moscow says is needed to establish a security buffer zone. He called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's recent warnings to Lukashenko regarding signal relay stations "concerning," after Kyiv threatened action if the facilities are not dismantled within a week. "But this doesn't cause any panic on the part of President Lukashenko. He's approaching this very calmly, balanced, and measuredly," Putin said.