U.S. incorrectly believed Putin was willing to return occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — The Washington Post

Vladimir Putin is not prepared to relinquish Russia’s claims to the occupied territories in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, a source familiar with the August 6 meeting between the Russian president and Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, told The Washington Post.

During the Kremlin meeting, Putin reportedly demanded that Kyiv give up the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in exchange for a ceasefire and a freeze of the front line at its current positions.

Afterward, Trump held a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders. According to Axios, at least some participants came away with the impression that Putin had agreed to drop his claims to the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The source told The Washington Post that the U.S. side interpreted Putin’s proposal to halt hostilities in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as a willingness to withdraw Russian troops from those areas. But, the source said, the Kremlin is not prepared to give up the occupied territories.

According to Axios, Witkoff later clarified in conversations with Ukrainian and European officials that Putin had only agreed to freeze Russia’s current positions in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The German outlet Bild reported a day earlier, citing German and Ukrainian sources, that Witkoff had misunderstood Putin. According to Bild, Trump’s envoy took Putin’s demand for a “peaceful withdrawal” of Ukrainian forces from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as an offer to pull Russian troops out of the regions. The outlet’s sources said Putin still aims for full control of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, and that his proposal amounted only to a partial ceasefire — a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure and major cities behind the front line.