A Conservative peer has urged Ukraine to accept it has lost land to Russia.
Lord Richard Balfe said Ukraine should also give up its ambitions to join Nato and pull out of the Russian region Kursk.
Speaking to Russia’s state news agency TASS, Balfe said there must be “some tidying up” of the present borders, adding: “Ukraine must withdraw from Kursk and accept that Crimea and the eastern [regions] are part of the Russian Federation.”
His remarks do not align with the stance both the Conservative Party and the governing Labour Party have adopted sine the war began – both have robustly defended Ukraine since Vladimir Putin invaded in February 2022.
But US president Donald Trump is pushing for a peace deal to end the war as soon as possible.
He is more sympathetic to Putin than most other Western leaders, sparking fears he could push Ukraine to cede occupied territory to Moscow for the sake of a quick end to the conflict.
Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukraine. Putin seized and annexed the Crimea peninsula in 2014 before launching a fully fledged land grab in February 2022.
Though he failed to take the entire country, by September 2022, Putin declared the four eastern regions he had invaded that year as Russian territory, despite continued opposition from Ukraine’s defence.
Kyiv has previously said giving up this land would be a major red line in any potential peace organisations, while Putin has repeatedly claimed any truce would have to recognise the “reality on the ground”.
Ukraine launched a shock incursion into the Russian region of Kursk in August last year and Putin has so far failed to push them out.
Balfe also told TASS: “There should be no reparations clause on either side. After World War One reparations [were] a constant problem which was never resolved until Adolf Hitler just refused to pay.”
He said any Russian assets frozen by the West – as part of the wide-reaching sanctions against Moscow over the invasion – should be handed back.
The Tory peer also suggested Kyiv should not join Nato or host any foreign troops for at least 25 years, amid speculation that peace-keeping soldiers could be installed in Ukraine to end the war.
He claimed Russia should agree not to make any territorial claims on the Baltic countries in return.
Balfe then suggested a solution should be found for the pro-Russia separatist region Transnistria, which sits in Moldova, next to the Ukraine border – Kyiv closed the border after the Russian invasion.
The peer said: “A solution to the problem of Transnistria should be sought with the Moldovan government and should include neutrality clauses similar to those with Ukraine. This seems a useful starting point to me.”
Balfe suggested in an email seen by HuffPost UK that a conference with the US, Ukraine, the EU and Russia could be held to resolve the war, although that “would be very much three against one”.
He added: “I would suggest initially the USA and The Russian Federation should meet followed by a conference with Ukraine and the EU. The position of the UK is difficult because like Germany it has contributed a lot of military support but basically if the USA pulls out then that is the end of the war.”
He said: “Any lasting peace must in my view be based on each side being responsible for rebuilding. Any attempt at reparations will drag the whole situation on indefinitely.”
Balfe also suggested including Russia in “our common European home,” too.