Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed about contacts with President Donald Trump's envoys on US proposals for a possible Ukrainian peace deal and Moscow will now formulate its position, the Kremlin said.
Mr Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly complained that ending the Ukraine war - the deadliest in Europe since World War II - has been the most elusive foreign policy aim of his presidency.
Ukraine and its European allies are worried that Mr Trump could sell out Ukraine and leave European powers to foot the bill for supporting a devastated Ukraine after Russian forces took roughly 15sq/km of Ukrainian land per day in 2025.
Ukrainian President President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the country won some concessions in the latest version of a US-led draft plan to end the Russian invasion, although key questions remain over territory and whether Moscow could accept the new terms.
Mr Zelensky conceded there are some points in the document that he does not like, but Kyiv has succeeded in removing immediate requirements for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk region or that land seized by Moscow's army would be recognised as Russian.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that envoy Kirill Dmitriev had briefed Mr Putin on the trip to Miami for contacts with Mr Trump's envoys.
But Mr Peskov refused to be drawn on Russia's reaction to the proposals, or the exact format of the documents, saying that the Kremlin was not going to communicate via the media.
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"All the main parameters of the Russian side's position are well known to our colleagues from the United States," Mr Peskov told reporters.
"Now we mean to formulate our position on the basis of the information that was received by the head of state and continue our contacts in the very near future through the existing channels that are currently working."
Mr Zelensky has indicated the proposal would pave the way for Kyiv to pull some troops back, including from the 20% of the Donetsk region that it controls, where demilitarised zones would be established.
It also got rid of demands that Kyiv must legally renounce its bid for NATO membership.
Mr Zelensky presented the plan during a two-hour briefing with journalists, reading from a highlighted and annotated version.
"In the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, the line of troop deployment as of the date of this agreement is de facto recognised as the line of contact," Mr Zelensky said of the latest version.
"A working group will convene to determine the redeployment of forces necessary to end the conflict, as well as to define the parameters of potential future special economic zones," he added.
This appears to suggest the plan opens the way for, but delays, options that Ukraine was previously reluctant to consider - a withdrawal of troops and the creation of demilitarised zones.
"We are in a situation where the Russians want us to withdraw from the Donetsk region, while the Americans are trying to find a way," Mr Zelensky said.
"They are looking for a demilitarised zone or a free economic zone, meaning a format that could satisfy both sides," he continued.
Mr Trump is trying to broker an to end the four-year war, triggered by Russia's 2022 invasion.
Tens of thousands have been killed, eastern Ukraine decimated and millions forced to flee their homes.
Russian troops are advancing on the front and hammering cities and Ukraine's energy grid with nightly missile and drone barrages. The Russian defence ministry has said it had captured another Ukrainian settlement in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Moscow in 2022 claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian regions - Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia - in addition to the Crimean peninsula which it seized in 2014.
In Moscow, Mr Putin has shown no willingness to compromise, doubling down on his hardline demands for a sweeping Ukrainian withdrawal and a string of political concessions that Kyiv and its European backers have previously cast as capitulation.
Read more:
What is in the new 20-point US-Ukraine plan to end Russian invasion
Ukraine war in 2025: Talks, setbacks and more war
Any plan that involves Ukraine pulling back its troops would need to pass a referendum in Ukraine, Mr Zelensky said.
"A free economic zone. If we are discussing this, then we need to go to a referendum," Mr Zelensky said, referring to plans to designate areas Ukraine pulls out from as a demilitarised free trade zone.
On NATO, Mr Zelensky said: "It is the choice of NATO members whether to have Ukraine or not. Our choice has been made. We moved away from the proposed changes to the Constitution of Ukraine that would have prohibited Ukraine from joining NATO."
Nevertheless, the prospects of Ukraine being admitted to the bloc appear slim-to-none, as it has been ruled out by Washington.
Moscow has repeatedly said NATO membership for Ukraine is unacceptable, presenting it as one of the reasons it invaded in the first place.
The plan sees joint US-Ukrainian-Russian management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian troops. Mr Zelensky said he does not want any Russian oversight of the facility.
He also said Ukraine would hold presidential elections only after an agreement is signed - something both Mr Putin and Mr Trump have been pushing for.
