Putin says "there is no peace plan, but issues to be addressed by the US and Russia."

Russian President Vladimir Putin presented his own proposal for Ukraine on Thursday, explaining that he is negotiating with the United States the recognition of his conquered territories, especially Crimea and Donbas.

Although Trump has presented his proposal as a peace plan and the US is negotiating its points with Ukraine, the Russian president has said that "there is no definitive peace plan, only some issues to be addressed by Moscow and Washington in bilateral format," as was done during the Cold War, excluding Kiev and European countries.

The head of the Kremlin has stressed that the international legal recognition of Russia's sovereignty over Donbas and the Crimean peninsula "matters", so that any attack on these territories "would be regarded as an attack on the Russian Federation with all appropriate response measures".

The Russian leader has stated that "at one point, we want to reach an agreement with Ukraine, but that is almost impossible from a legal point of view." Putin has justified this position by saying that Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky lost "legitimacy" by not calling elections when his term expired in 2024.

"It makes no sense to sign documents with Ukrainian leaders," he said, adding that they want their decisions to be accepted by "major international actors."

The Russian President stressed that fighting will only end if the Ukrainian army leaves the territories occupied by Moscow. "If they do not withdraw, we will force them out," he warned.

Witkoff, in Moscow

Putin has defended Steve Witkoff for leaks of talks with the Kremlin and said he expects him in Moscow "in the middle of next week."

In his view, "there is no reason to accuse Mr. Witkoff of being too polite to his Russian colleagues," and he has stressed that he is "an American citizen who defends the position of the president and the country."

He said, "It would be amazing if in our talks with Yuri Ushakov we were to be foolish and then try to establish relations with us in order to improve our negotiating positions.

With regard to the leaks, he has suggested that they could be referred to the "criminal case", while at the same time believing that they could be both true and false.

Meanwhile, Ukraine and the United States will resume negotiations onthe peace plan that began last weekend in Geneva at the end of this week.