USA prepares more carrots, but not sticks for Russia to end Ukraine conflict

Ukraine appears to be ready to give up 20 percent of its territory to Russia, an unnamed senior official at the U.S. presidential administration said. This likely refers to the territories that currently remains under the control of Russian forces.

However, Kyiv is reportedly willing to do so under one condition — the concessions be recognized as de facto, not de jure, The New York Post publication reports.

"“‘De facto’ means we recognize the Russians occupy this land, but we don’t say [Ukraine is] going to give it up forever,” the official said. “‘De jure’ means we acknowledge that [the Russians] take in this land and we’ll never see it back again,” the official said. 

He confirmed this by saying that during negotiations with the U.S. delegation two weeks ago, Ukraine was most concerned about the "land portion” of the agreement — meaning the recognition of territory as Russian.

U.S. says ceasefire decision in Ukraine could come soon

The same senior U.S. official said that a decision on a full and comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine could be reached "as soon as this week.” According to the official, the deal is expected to be finalized during a meeting in London involving representatives from the U.S., Ukraine, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

"And once we achieve that, the next steps will be determined,” the source told the publication.

U.S. Special Representative Steve Witkoff may offer Moscow a few incentives to bring it to the negotiating table — for example, easing sanctions or possibly unfreezing seized assets.

However, other experts believe that this would contradict Donald Trump's earlier threats to increase financial pressure on Moscow.