Washington prepares proposal to halt airstrikes between Russia and Ukraine

The United States is preparing a new package of proposals to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, with one of the key ideas being a halt to mutual airstrikes. According to Reuters sources, the initiative is currently being discussed between Washington and Kyiv, after which it will be proposed to Moscow.

On July 28, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the US, where a meeting with American President Donald Trump is scheduled. The talks come against the backdrop of new attempts to revive the diplomatic process between the two countries.

An agency source recalls that Kyiv had previously offered a truce to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he refused. However, according to some Western officials, the Kremlin may now be more inclined to compromise due to the growing damage to the Russian economy caused by intensive Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries and logistical facilities.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the information, stating that it is unclear "how credible these reports are and where they originate from."

Earlier this week, Zelenskyy held a phone conversation with Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, with whom he discussed the possibility of resuming peace negotiations with Russia, which were broken off in February.

On July 22, Bloomberg sources close to the Kremlin stated that Putin does not intend to enter into contact with Ukraine until Russia establishes full control over the Donbas. Furthermore, he does not intend to return to Ukraine the occupied areas in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which he plans to turn into a buffer zone.

According to the same sources, Putin has abandoned the earlier idea of a territorial "exchange" after deciding that the informal arrangements reached with Trump regarding the Donbas during the meeting in Anchorage in August 2025 are no longer in effect. Washington denies the existence of such arrangements.

Publicly, Putin stated on June 28 that he had received proposals to stop strikes deep within the territory on both sides, as well as to limit hostilities to four regions – the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. According to him, Russia did not accept this proposal because it would have allowed the Ukrainian Armed Forces to transfer forces to other directions.

On July 23, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated after his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that "new ideas" would be needed to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, as the options discussed during the meetings in Alaska had failed.

According to him, those proposals were unacceptable to Kyiv even then, and even more so now.

In response, Lavrov accused Trump of "dishonorable behavior," and the Kremlin urged against "excessive optimism" regarding the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, emphasizing that "there is no talk of any new dynamics for now."