Russia claims to have occupied the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk. Vladimir Putin, visiting a command center of the Russian forces
Capture from the sequences published on the official Kremlin Telegram account after the Russian president's visit to the command post, Thursday, November 20, 2025. Credit: AFP / AFP / Profimedia
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited an army command center and listened to officers' reports on the situation on the frontline in Ukraine, the Kremlin said, according to AFP and Reuters.
“The president and supreme commander visited one of the command posts of the western group of troops and had a meeting with the chief of staff,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, without specifying whether it was a location in Russia or occupied Ukraine.
On the occasion of the visit, the Chief of Staff of the Russian Army, Valery Gerasimov, told the President that Russian forces have taken control of the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk.
According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin was briefed on the situation in Kostiantynivka and Kramatorsk, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, as well as in the area of the city of Kupiansk, in Kharkiv region.
“The units of the “Vest” group liberated the city of Kupiansk and continue to destroy the units of the Ukrainian armed forces surrounded on the left bank of the Oskol River,” Gerasimov told Putin.
General Gerasimov claimed that Russian troops continue to expand their control zone in the Dnipropetrovsk region, in the central-eastern part of Ukraine, as well as in the Zaporozhye region, in the southeastern part of Ukraine, according to Agerpres.
He also reported a “successful offensive” in the Pokrovsk area, a key logistical hub for Ukrainian forces, and in the area of the city of Siversk.
Peace plan negotiated by the US and Russia
The move of the Russian president took place in the context in which the presidential emissaries of Washington and Moscow developed a new draft peace plan.
A 28-point peace plan proposed by the US for Ukraine includes, according to sources cited by The Telegraph on Thursday, a provision whereby Moscow would gain control of eastern Donbas in exchange for the payment of a “rent fee”. Kiev would retain legal ownership of the territories, the sources said.
The plan, drawn up, according to sources, by US and Russian presidential emissaries Steve Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, also proposes that Ukrainian forces liberate the remaining unoccupied areas of Donbas, turning them into a “demilitarized zone,” Axios reported Wednesday.
In return, Moscow could make concessions in the partially occupied Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Under the plan, Kiev would also reduce its armed forces, lose some Western weapons and stop hosting foreign troops, according to the Financial Times.
The presidency of Ukraine announced on Thursday that it has received a draft plan from the US and that it is ready to cooperate constructively with Washington on this issue.
