Putin proposed a temporary humanitarian pause in Kostiantynivka but maintained his territorial demands

On 12 November 2026, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a temporary ceasefire for a humanitarian operation in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region. He made the proposal at a Kremlin meeting with US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and reiterated Moscow’s territorial claims against Ukraine. The statements were reported by AFP and cited by the Romanian news agency News.ro, 24 Chasa and OFFNews.

Putin reiterated Russia’s claims to four regions

Putin again insisted that Russia be recognised as having claims to the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Moscow announced their annexation in 2022, despite not controlling the regions in full.

The Russian president rejected the creation of demilitarised zones along the front line. He called the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine “completely unacceptable” and said that, in Moscow’s view, this would mean a continuation of the war, 24 Chasa and OFFNews report.

Citing TASS, Mediapool also reported Putin’s statement that, for Russia, the line of demarcation is the state border. This is a stated Russian demand, not an agreement on Ukraine’s borders.

In Flank’s assessment, the proposal for a local humanitarian pause does not in itself mean that the sides are moving closer on peace terms. It does not change Moscow’s stated territorial demands or its objections to the security arrangements under discussion.

European participation in the talks remains disputed

The US envoys pressed for European countries to be included in the negotiations. The European news channel Euronews carried a Reuters report quoting Witkoff as saying that the Europeans would take part in the next meeting. Kushner also expressed hope that the talks would move to a multilateral format.

According to Euronews, however, Moscow played down that prospect. Yuri Ushakov linked European participation to an end to European military aid to Ukraine. Witkoff’s stated expectation therefore does not mean that the participants in the next round of talks have been finally agreed.

The Kremlin meeting followed two days of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi. According to Euronews, the Russian delegation refused to meet the European team there.

No confirmation that the proposed pause has been accepted

There is currently no confirmation of whether Ukraine has accepted the proposal or whether the ceasefire has been implemented. No agreed start time, duration or geographical scope for the pause has been announced, nor has a monitoring mechanism.

These conditions are important for the safety of the humanitarian operation: agreed routes, communication between commands and procedures for dealing with violations are needed. The proposal itself does not mean that such an agreement has been reached.

This is a developing story and further information may be added.