The Kremlin on Friday warned Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky to enter negotiations "now" or lose more territory after the U.S. sent Kiev a peace proposal heeding to many of Moscow's demands.
"The effective work of the Russian armed forces should convince Zelensky: it is better to negotiate and do it now rather than later," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"The space for the freedom of decision-making is shrinking for him as territories are lost during offensive actions by the Russian army," he added, while saying Moscow had not officially received the U.S. plan.
Ukraine would give up a swathe of eastern territory to Russia and slash the size of its army under a sweeping 28-point peace plan backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a draft obtained by AFP.
Kiev would also pledge never to join NATO, and would not get the Western peacekeepers they have called for, although European warplanes would be stationed in Poland to protect Ukraine.
Zelensky said he expected to discuss the plan with Trump "in coming days." He said any deal must bring a "dignified peace" that respected Kiev's sovereignty.
The White House denied reports it had cooked up the proposal with Moscow, saying envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been "quietly" working with both sides for the past month.
EU chiefs said on Nov. 21 they have not officially received the 28-point U.S. proposal, adding they would discuss it with leaders attending the G20 summit this weekend in South Africa.
A U.S. official told AFP the draft plan includes a powerful security guarantee for Kiev, modeled on NATO rules, which would commit the U.S. and European allies to respond to any attack on Ukraine.
Russia would meanwhile be readmitted to the G8 group of nations and be rewarded with sanctions relief under the plan, which U.S. officials said was still a "working document."
The proposal involves major concessions by Kiev, which has previously refused to cede any land, while appearing to meet many of Moscow's maximalist demands following its 2022 invasion.
Key parts of the proposal correspond to Moscow's previous demands and cross Ukraine's red lines.
These include that Ukraine would withdraw from the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, the frontline industrial belt known collectively as the Donbas that Ukraine still partly holds.
The two regions and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, "will be recognized as de facto Russian, including by the United States," while a demilitarized zone would be created in the Donbas.
The war-torn southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will be "frozen along the line of contact," it said.
Russia's army occupies around a fifth of Ukraine, much of it ravaged by years of fighting.
Ukraine had been hoping for European-led peacekeepers but Russia's refusal to accept any such force also wins out in the plan.
NATO would agree not to station troops in Ukraine, while the country would be barred from joining NATO by both its own constitution and the alliance's statutes.
Kiev meanwhile would reduce its army by a little less than half, to 600,000 personnel.
In return, Ukraine would receive "reliable security guarantees," the plan says without specifying, but "European fighter jets" would be stationed in neighboring Poland.
Ukraine would also have to hold elections in 100 days, a further Russian demand and one echoed by Trump, who called Zelensky a "dictator without elections" earlier this year.
Under the proposal, Russia would be "reintegrated into the global economy" and be allowed back into the G8, from which it was expelled in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea.
Yet Russia meanwhile faces few military restrictions under the plan, which says only that "it is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries."
The contents of the proposal plan have fuelled suggestions that Moscow was involved in drafting it.
"It seems that the Russians proposed this to the Americans, they accepted it," a senior Ukrainian source told AFP.
But U.S. officials insisted all sides were involved.
