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By David Brennan
Diplomatic Correspondent
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Former President Donald Trump's reported plan to end Russia's war on Ukraine is "impossible" to evaluate without more detail and confirmation, the Kremlin has told Newsweek. Moscow and Kyiv are maneuvering for possible diplomatic openings resulting from the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign.
The Washington Post reported this week that Trump is mulling over a peace plan by which Ukraine would cede Crimea and the eastern Donbas region to Russia. Kyiv would also be permanently excluded from NATO.
The former president and his team hope a deal would encourage Russia to reduce its dependence on, and allegiance to, China, the Post reported. Trump campaign spokespeople dismissed the report as "fake news," per the New York Post.
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The Kremlin press office—headed by President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov—told Newsweek in a statement on Wednesday that it was aware of the speculation as to Trump's intentions in Ukraine.
"We have seen reports on this, but so far, no initiatives have been announced by Donald Trump," Peskov's office said. "Therefore, it is impossible to make estimates."
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The barriers to peace in Ukraine appear near-insurmountable after more than two years of full-scale war, and over a decade of the lower-intensity conflict that saw Crimea occupied by Moscow and pro-Kremlin separatist rebellion inflame parts of the Donbas.
The peace talks that began in the hours after the February 24, 2022 invasion collapsed relatively quickly, with the demands of Kyiv and Moscow incompatible and Ukraine's fury over the attack mounting amid reports of Russian war crimes.
Two years later, neither side has signaled a willingness to compromise. Ukraine wants all Russian troops to withdraw from its territory per its internationally recognized 1991 borders, plus Russian reparations and war-crime trials for Russian leaders.
Putin, meanwhile, has demanded Kyiv accept what he called the "new territorial realities" of Russia's occupation of swaths of Ukraine. The Russian leader has long dismissed the validity of Ukrainian sovereignty and has shown no sign of easing his intention to isolate Kyiv internationally and prevent its decades-long westward drift.
Russian forces have momentum on Ukraine's eastern front, pushing hard for new territorial gains as they exploit their munition, artillery and air superiority over the defending Ukrainians.
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned this week that, without more Western aid—and specifically the $60 billion in U.S. funding stranded in Congress amid several months of partisan disputes—Ukraine will lose the war.
"If Ukraine loses this war, other countries will be attacked," Zelensky said. "This is a fact."
Responding to Trump's repeated suggestions that Ukraine should cede territory in pursuit of peace, the Ukrainian president said he has invited his former U.S. counterpart to visit the country "to see everything with his own eyes and draw his own conclusions."
Zelensky added that Trump had expressed interest in a visit, though the former president's campaign said the Ukrainian president's remarks were "incorrect."
As to Trump's ideas for a peace plan, Zelensky said he had heard nothing directly from the Republican presidential candidate. "If I have such an opportunity, I will with pleasure listen to them and then we can discuss the topic," he added.
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