MOSCOW (Reuters) -Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.
The Russian president met Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday for the first Russia-U.S. summit in more than four years and spent almost all of their three-hour closed meeting discussing what a compromise on Ukraine might look like, according to the sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Speaking afterwards beside Trump, Putin said the meeting would hopefully open up the road to peace in Ukraine – but neither leader gave specifics about what they discussed.
In the most detailed Russian-based reporting to date on Putin’s offer at the summit, Reuters was able to outline the contours of what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace deal to end a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people.
In essence, the Russian sources said, Putin has compromised on territorial demands he laid out in June 2024, which required Kyiv to cede the entirety of the four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – which make up the Donbas – plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
Kyiv rejected those terms as tantamount to surrender.
In his new proposal, the Russian president has stuck to his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the parts of the Donbas it still controls, according to the three sources. In return, though, Moscow would halt the current front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, they added.
Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to U.S. estimates and open-source data.
Moscow is also willing to hand over the small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine it controls as part of a possible deal, the sources said.
Putin is sticking, too, to his previous demands that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and for a legally binding pledge from the U.S.-led military alliance that it will not expand further eastwards, as well as for limits on the Ukrainian army and an agreement that no Western troops will be deployed on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said.
Yet the two sides remain far apart, more than three years after Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in a full-scale invasion that followed the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and prolonged fighting in the country’s east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the proposals.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and has said the industrial Donbas region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine.
“If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. “It is a matter of our country’s survival, involving the strongest defensive lines.”
Joining NATO, meanwhile, is a strategic objective enshrined in the country’s constitution and one which Kyiv sees as its most reliable security guarantee. Zelenskiy said it was not up to Russia to decide on the alliance’s membership.
The White House and NATO didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the Russian proposals.
Political scientist Samuel Charap, chair in Russia and Eurasia Policy at RAND, a U.S.-based global policy think-tank, said any requirement for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas remained a non-starter for Kyiv, both politically and strategically.
“Openness to ‘peace’ on terms categorically unacceptable to the other side could be more of a performance for Trump than a sign of a true willingness to compromise,” he added. “The only way to test that proposition is to begin a serious process at the working level to hash out those details.”
TRUMP: PUTIN WANTS TO SEE IT ENDED
Russian forces currently control a fifth of Ukraine, an area about the size of the American state of Ohio, according to U.S. estimates and open-source maps.
The three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in the Alaskan city of Anchorage had ushered in the best chance for peace since the war began because there had been specific discussions about Russia’s terms and Putin had shown a willingness to give ground.
“Putin is ready for peace – for compromise. That is the message that was conveyed to Trump,” one of the people said.
The sources cautioned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine would be prepared to cede the remains of the Donbas, and that if it did not then the war would continue. Also unclear was whether or not the United States would give any recognition to Russian-held Ukrainian territory, they added.
A fourth source said that though economic issues were secondary for Putin, he understood the economic vulnerability of Russia and the scale of the effort needed to go far further into Ukraine.
Trump has said he wants to end the “bloodbath” of the war and be remembered as a “peacemaker president”. He said on Monday he had begun arranging a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, to be followed by a trilateral summit with the U.S. president.
“I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended,” Trump said beside Zelenskiy in the Oval office. “I feel confident we are going to get it solved.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Putin was prepared to meet Zelenskiy but that all issues had to be worked through first and there was a question about Zelenskiy’s authority to sign a peace deal.
Putin has repeatedly raised doubts about Zelenskiy’s legitimacy as his term in office was due to expire in May 2024 but the war means no new presidential election has yet been held. Kyiv says Zelenskiy remains the legitimate president.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany have said they are sceptical that Putin wants to end the war.
SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR UKRAINE
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was instrumental in paving the way for the summit, and the latest drive for peace, according to two of the Russian sources.
Witkoff met Putin in the Kremlin on August 6 with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. At the meeting, Putin conveyed clearly to Witkoff that he was ready to compromise and set out the contours of what he could accept for peace, according to two Russian sources.
If Russia and Ukraine could reach an agreement, then there are various options for a formal deal – including a possible three-way Russia-Ukraine-U.S. deal that is recognised by the U.N. Security Council, one of the sources said.
Another option is to go back to the failed 2022 Istanbul agreements, where Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine’s permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the sources added.
“There are two choices: war or peace, and if there is no peace, then there is more war,” one of the people said.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Pravin Char)
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World’s most popular painkiller may increase risk of autism and ADHD, Harvard experts warn: ‘This could have major public health implications’
Paracetamol—known as acetaminophen and often sold under the brand name Tylenol in the US—is widely used by expectant mothers to treat pain, headaches and fever.
Pregnant women should only take paracetamol on the advice of a doctor, Harvard scientists have warned—amid fears the common painkiller could raise the risk of autism and ADHD in their children.
Paracetamol—known as acetaminophen and often sold under the brand name Tylenol in the US—is widely used by expectant mothers to treat pain, headaches and fever. But dozens of studies have already linked it to higher rates of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Now US researchers from Mount Sinai and Harvard’s School of Public Health say their analysis of more than 100,000 people is the most comprehensive yet—and provides the ‘strongest evidence so far’ of a link. They urged mothers-to-be to use paracetamol sparingly, recommending only ‘the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible time.’
However, the team stressed the findings do not prove the drug directly causes neurodevelopmental disorders—only that the association is consistent and worrying enough to demand further investigation. Dr Diddier Prada, assistant professor of population health science at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and co-author of the study, said: ‘Our findings show that higher-quality studies are more likely to show a link between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and increased risks of autism and ADHD.’
He added: ‘Given the widespread use of this medication, even a small increase in risk could have major public health implications.’ But he stressed that women should not suddenly stop taking it. ‘Pregnant women should not stop taking medication without consulting their doctors. Untreated pain or fever can also harm the baby.
‘Our study highlights the importance of discussing the safest approach with health care providers and considering non-drug options whenever possible.’
Paracetamol is currently recommended by the NHS as the ‘first choice’ painkiller for expectant mothers, but only for short periods and at the lowest effective dose.
Around half of pregnant women in the UK take paracetamol, and in the US the figure rises to around 65 per cent.
Health chiefs advise that only certain people — such as those with liver or kidney disease or taking epilepsy medication — need to exercise extra caution.
To reach their conclusion, the US researchers reviewed 46 separate studies involving more than 100,000 participants.
The team collected detailed data on when paracetamol was taken—whether in the first, second or third trimester, or throughout the whole pregnancy—and linked it with mothers’ medical records.
Writing in the journal Environmental Health, they concluded: ‘Ultimately, the obtained scores suggest strong evidence of a likely relationship between prenatal acetaminophen use and increased risk of ADHD in children.
‘This includes high-quality studies that provide very strong evidence of an association and studies that provide strong evidence of an association.’
They added: ‘There was strong evidence of a relationship between prenatal acetaminophen use and increased risk of autism in children.’
The findings come as demand for autism assessments has reached record levels in the wake of Covid.
NHS figures show almost 130,000 under-18s in England were waiting for an assessment in December 2024.
Experts have described it as an ‘invisible crisis’, with services repeatedly failing to keep pace with rising demand.
Last year, the Children’s Commissioner warned that children left languishing for years on waiting lists were effectively being ‘robbed’ of their childhoods.
Autism is not a disease and is present from birth, although it may not be recognised until childhood or even much later in life.
It exists on a spectrum: while some people can live independently with little support, others may need full-time care.
Meanwhile, NHS figures show more than 230,000 people in England are now prescribed ADHD medication to manage symptoms such as inattention and hyperactivity.
Prescription rates jumped by a fifth last year — the sharpest annual rise since records began in 2015.
The surge has been driven largely by women in their 20s and 30s, though prescriptions for children are also climbing.
Experts have voiced concern that some private clinics are over-diagnosing the condition and handing out powerful stimulant drugs too freely.
But others argue that far from being over-diagnosed, many adults are only now getting the help they were long denied.
ADHD was only formally recognised in the UK as a disorder that persists into adulthood in 2008—until then it was seen solely as a childhood problem that children would ‘grow out of.’
In the US, meanwhile, an estimated 2.3 million children and seven million adults have ASD.
Diagnoses have risen sharply over the past two decades, according to shifting statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2000, about 1 in 150 children received an ASD diagnosis; by 2020, that figure had climbed to 1 in 31, a near-quadrupling that reflects both greater awareness and evolving diagnostic criteria.
The surge in the US is further illustrated in a 2024 study of 12.2 million Americans’ health records, which revealed a 175 percent increase in autism diagnoses over an 11-year period.
While some experts attribute the rise to expanded screening and reduced stigma, others argue that biological and environmental factors may also play a role. This debate continues to divide researchers.
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Jonathan Turley Shares What One Thing Public Must Consider When Gauging Maxwell’s Credibility
GWU law professor Jonathan Turley said on Fox News Friday that the public must weigh Ghislaine Maxwell’s motivations when judging her credibility.
The Justice Department on Friday released its interview with Maxwell, which Attorney General Pam Bondi had ordered Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to conduct in July about Jeffrey Epstein. During an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” host Jesse Watters asked whether Turley believes Maxwell. Turley pointed to his decades as a defense attorney.
“I’ve been a criminal defense attorney my whole life, and I have learned that even the most untruthful witnesses usually have some truth in what they say. You have to be skeptical. You have to consider their motivations,” Turley said. “That’s what lawyers tell jurors to do. And in this case, she’s saying that there wasn’t any blackmail operation here. That’s a real possibility.”
Turley acknowledged rumors that Epstein wired his New York mansion, but he said Maxwell’s interview will not resolve that question.
“Epstein was a pedophile, and he did attract rather seedy friends by offering them young girls. That’s bad enough. Did he want to create an insurance system? Some people say yes. They say that his house in New York was wired. And why do you do that unless you have some type of tapes? But clearly we’re not going to find that through Maxwell,” Turley added.
Turley called the Justice Department’s release of Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview extraordinary, noting that such disclosures are rare.
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“It’s an extraordinary release. You obviously don’t normally see this type of interview even occur, let alone see the transcript or get the tapes. This is an effort to be absolutely transparent. You could sense the palpable disappointment in this city when she said there is no list,” Turley said. “And I actually think I know where that rumor came from, and what happened was she was immediately denounced as a liar, that there has to be a list and that she was protecting the president.”
Turley said Maxwell’s denial of a “list” may be genuine, but he said that her record as a convicted trafficker and her push for a commutation make her motives suspect.
“There is another possibility, and that is she didn’t have anything on the president, and perhaps there isn’t a list. But what is clear is that this release didn’t satisfy the beltway. Now is she gaming the system? Probably. I mean, this is not someone who was put into jail for no reason at all. She’s a tragic figure and a rather infamous one in her own right,” Turley added. “She facilitated human trafficking. She facilitated the abuse of girls in this longstanding conspiracy. So she doesn’t cut a very sympathetic figure. She clearly also does want something from President Trump. She wants a commutation. That might not come until the end of the term, but she’s clearly angling for it.”
In the interview, Maxwell described President Donald Trump as “a gentleman in all respects” and said she never observed him in any compromising situation. She told Blanche that Trump never acted improperly with anyone and rejected claims that former President Bill Clinton received a massage aboard Epstein’s jet.
Maxwell also said she did not recall Trump sending Epstein a birthday card in 2003 and added she never saw such a document among the case materials presented at her trial in New York. Trump filed a lawsuit in July against the Wall Street Journal for reporting that he once sent Epstein a lewd birthday note. On the same day, the House Oversight Committee said that the Justice Department had begun releasing Epstein-related records.
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