Top Russian official reportedly urged Putin to halt war against Ukraine
Dmitry Kozak, a deputy head of Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration, has recently urged Putin to stop the war in Ukraine and begin peace talks, the New York Times reported on Aug. 10, citing its undisclosed sources.
The development comes ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's scheduled meeting with Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15, their first in-person talks since Trump's return to office. The White House is also weighing whether to invite President Volodymyr Zelensky to join talks the same day.
Kozak, a longtime Putin ally and one of the few senior Russian officials privately opposed to the war, reportedly presented a plan to end hostilities alongside proposals for internal reforms.
Before the full-scale invasion began in 2022, the official had warned the Russian president about the risks of fierce Ukrainian resistance, and after it began, tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a truce.
Once a key figure in managing Ukrainian affairs, Kozak has lost much of his influence to Sergei Kirienko, deputy head of Russia's presidential administration, who now oversees occupied territories.
Western officials told the New York Times that Kozak has continued informal contacts with foreign representatives, seeking arguments that might sway Putin.
The Russian president has been refusing an unconditional ceasefire proposed by the U.S. since Ukraine supported it in March. Putin has publicly demanded that Ukraine forgo NATO membership and withdraw troops from partially-occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts as preconditions for peace.
Moscow reiterated these demands during the Istanbul peace talks in May and again during the third round of talks in July, which concluded in less than an hour.
In recent days, the U.S. president said he and Putin will discuss a ceasefire proposal involving Kyiv ceding eastern territories to Russia, a plan Zelensky has firmly rejected, warning it would allow Moscow to regroup and attack again.
