The proposal, described by the outlet's sources as a "cartographic trick," would let Moscow claim the two regions in full while Kyiv would not have to hand over territory. The Kremlin regards Donetsk and Luhansk as its constitutional territory on the basis of a "referendum" held on September 30, 2022, under partial occupation of both regions. Official results put support for joining Russia at about 98.5% in Luhansk and more than 99% in Donetsk.
As of early November 2026, Russian forces controlled about 99% of the Luhansk region, according to The Moscow Times. In the Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces hold more than 20%, including the fortified Sloviansk-Kramatorsk conurbation. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has noted that Putin has moved back his deadline for the full capture of Donbas more than 15 times during the war.
The Economist names a second concession the US is prepared to offer Moscow: Russia's return to the European energy market despite current EU legislation. Both Ukraine and European countries oppose it. "We will never agree to this while the war is going on," the outlet quotes a Ukrainian official as saying.
Sources told The Economist of Russia's "unusual flexibility" in preparing for talks in Abu Dhabi, which they link to the Trump administration widening the meeting's agenda to include collective security in Europe. Skeptical US diplomats believe this gives Moscow room to put forward "new, deliberately unfulfillable demands" to drag out the peace process.
The Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi is led by senior Federal Security Service (FSB) officers Alexei Komkov and Dmitry Minaev, according to Important Stories and Agentstvo. Komkov heads the FSB's Fifth Service; Minaev runs the counterintelligence operations department and has been accused over an failed attempt to kill Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian president's office, in 2019.
US President Donald Trump said on November 9 that after the war ends Ukraine "will take a slightly different form." Accepting Russian control over occupied territories is unacceptable to Ukraine, a source close to Volodymyr Zelensky's office told Meduza in late October: "We have a consensus: Ukraine does not give up its territories."
Washington itself acknowledges there is no guarantee that the "cartographic" and energy proposals will actually interest Putin. Questions remain open over international security guarantees for Ukraine, its non-aligned status and cuts to the Ukrainian army.