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Kremlin denies reports it is secretly working with US for peace in Ukraine

Dmitry Peskov

Moscow on Wednesday denied an Axios report that the United States is working on a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine and said it had no new developments to announce since the August summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

Trump's efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, have so far failed, and last month he abruptly canceled a planned summit with Putin in Budapest.

Trump clashed in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February, but has recently expressed disappointment and frustration with Putin, although he has repeatedly said he hopes to end the war.

When asked directly whether it was true, as reported by Axios, that a conceptual discussion had led to new peace proposals being put on paper, the Kremlin spokesman

Dmitry Peskov said there is nothing new regarding peace efforts. 

"So far there is no news in this that can be reported to you," he said.

Nearly four years since Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, Russian forces are advancing and control about 19% of Ukraine.

Moscow says four of its regions are now legally part of Russia, although Ukraine and Western European powers say they will never officially recognize this.

Putin has set out his main conditions in June 2024, demanding that Kiev abandon its plans to join the US-led NATO military alliance and withdraw troops from all four provinces that Moscow claims as part of Russia: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine - which make up the Donbass - plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

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