It has emerged that CIA chief William Burns last month proposed that Ukraine cede 20% of its occupied territory to Russia as part of a peace deal but Ukraine rejected the proposal according to two German politicians.
Moscow and Kyiv reportedly rejected Burns’ offer, which led to U.S. President Joe Biden allowing the supply of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, a condition that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had set to allow the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv.
According to a report by the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Kyiv was “not willing to have their territory divided,” while Moscow said it “will win the war in the long run anyway.”
The Kremlin on Friday denied the report that Burns had offered Moscow Ukraine’s territorial concessions in exchange for a peace deal.
Meanwhile, on Friday Kyiv is hosting the EU-Ukraine Summit bringing together senior Ukrainian officials and EU representatives.
The bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Thursday with the EU’s most senior diplomat, Josep Borrell, for talks on Ukraine’s hopes to become an EU member.
Kyiv and other towns in Ukraine are enduring heavy artillery and missile strikes launched by the Russian troops.
Russian forces are pressing Ukrainian troops in the eastern Donetsk region with announced advances north and south of the city of Bakhmut under constant bombardment.
Moscow has been trying to seize control of Bakhmut in the industrial region for months in what has become the longest and bloodiest battle of the invasion.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the collective west that has moved on to supply modern weapons to Ukraine.
“We have something to respond with,” Putin said at a ceremony commemorating the Red Army’s victory against Nazi troops 80 years ago in Stalingrad.
“A modern war with Russia will be completely different.”
“As new weapons supplied by the collective West appear, Russia will use its potential to the fullest to respond,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
