US-Russia plan truce deal that would cement Putin's gains in Ukraine, Bloomberg reports
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council in Moscow, Russia, August 8, 2025. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
The U.S. and Russia are aiming to reach a deal to halt the war in Ukraine that would lock in Moscow's occupation of territory seized during its military invasion, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
U.S. and Russian officials are working towards an agreement on territories for a planned summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as early as next week, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The White House dismissed the Bloomberg story as speculation. A Kremlin spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities.
Reuters could not immediately verify the details included in the report.
Putin claims four Ukrainian regions - Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which he annexed in 2014. His forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions at present.
Ukraine has previously signalled a willingness to be flexible in the search for an end to a war that has ravaged its towns and cities and killed large numbers of its soldiers and citizens.
However, accepting the loss of around a fifth of Ukraine's territory would be very painful and politically challenging for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his government.
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Under the putative deal, according to Bloomberg, Russia would halt its offensive in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along current battlelines.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has moved to mend relations with Russia and sought to end the war, although in his public comments he has veered between admiration and sharp criticism of Putin.
In a sign of his growing frustration with Putin's refusal to halt Russia's military offensive, Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions from Friday against Moscow and countries that buy its exports unless the Russian leader agrees to end the 3-1/2 year conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.
But with the Putin-Trump summit expected in the coming days, possibly in the United Arab Emirates, it is unclear whether those sanctions will take effect or will be delayed or cancelled.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff held three hours of talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday that both sides described as constructive.
'CERTAIN SIGNALS'
Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, a close ally of Ukraine, said earlier on Friday that a pause in the conflict could be close. He was speaking after talks with Zelenskiy.
"There are certain signals, and we also have an intuition, that perhaps a freeze in the conflict - I don't want to say the end, but a freeze in the conflict - is closer than it is further away," Tusk told a news conference. "There are hopes for this."
Tusk also said Zelenskiy was "very cautious but optimistic" and that Ukraine was keen that Poland and other European countries play a role in planning for a ceasefire and an eventual peace settlement. REUTERS
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