Journalists at the Financial Times report that U.S. officials are convinced Kiev will inevitably have to give up territory as part of any eventual peace settlement.

According to the newspaper, members of Donald Trump’s administration — in particular, special envoy Steve Whitkoff — have in recent weeks been pushing Ukrainian negotiators to accept a territorial swap, which they regard as an unavoidable element of any agreement to end the conflict.

Citing an unnamed source, the authors write that Whitkoff is described as being almost fixated on the idea that Ukraine’s refusal to hold on to the remaining part of Donbass could, in his view, make it possible to reach a «just peace» and prevent a longer and even more destructive war.

Earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin received Whitkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin. Their talks lasted around five hours, but the sides failed to produce a compromise acceptable to everyone involved. Later, the Russian leader said that Washington had broken down a 27-point peace plan into four separate blocs.

On Monday, Vladimir Zelensky arrived in the United Kingdom, where he discussed the American peace proposal with Starmer, Macron and Merz. Ukrainian outlets report that, following these talks, the head of the Kiev regime once again rejected any option that would involve territorial concessions.