"Putin's willingness to negotiate peace with Trump...Conditions for waiver of Ukraine NATO"

There have been reports that Russian President Putin is willing to discuss a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine with U.S. President-elect Trump, who will take office in January next year.

Citing five current and former Russian officials familiar with the Kremlin's internal affairs, Reuters reported that Putin could broadly agree to freeze the conflict along the front lines.

However, he said the prerequisite is that Ukraine should give up its membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and NATO, and that it will exclude the concession of a large number of occupied Ukrainian territories.

Sources said there was room for negotiations on the exact division of the four Russian-occupied regions - Donetsk and Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

It also predicted Russia could withdraw from its relatively small territories occupied in Kharkiv in northern Ukraine and Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, and discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.

In a related development, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed Putin's existing position that he was ready to negotiate, but said freezing the conflict was unacceptable and stressed the importance of achieving the goal.