His words came ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. They are expected to discuss the peace plan for ending the Ukraine conflict put forward by Washington last month.

The details of the initial plan have not officially been made public, but the media reported that it requires Ukraine to cede parts of Donbass (the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic) it still controls, abandon its NATO bid, and accept limits on its military. Russia has cautiously welcomed the initiative, saying that many points of the plan are acceptable, but added that it expects the proposal to be modified by all sides.

“It is the task of diplomacy to work out compromises that the conflicting parties can support. Ultimately, this will certainly always involve painful concessions,” Wadephul said, commenting on the prospects of a negotiated settlement.

According to the minister, Ukraine would need to hold a referendum on the peace conditions, including territorial concessions. He also maintained that Kiev should be offered security “assurances” in exchange.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously named territorial issues as being among the most difficult points to resolve. The nation’s military have been losing ground for months to the continued Russian advance.

Kiev’s Western backers in Europe derided Trump’s initial plan as favoring Russia too much and put forward a set of their own conditions for achieving peace, which Moscow dismissed as “unconstructive.”

Germany has been one of Ukraine’s key supporters and arms suppliers in the conflict. Berlin’s position has further hardened under the current government led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had previously claimed that all diplomatic options had been “exhausted” and his nation was “already in a conflict” with Russia.

The agency claimed there is little ambiguity about which country France has in mind, given its sustained backing of Kiev. It argued that Ukraine’s mobile air-defense units and limited Western aircraft cannot fully counter Russian strikes, and that operating French-made Mirage fighter jets and other advanced systems requires expertise Ukraine does not possess.

The SVR stressed that the presence of French private military companies in Ukraine under the guise of “reference operators” would be regarded by Moscow as direct engagement by Paris in hostilities. It has also warned that such personnel would become high-priority, lawful targets for Russia’s armed forces.

French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly raised the possibility of deploying Western troops to Ukraine. In August, he told reporters in Washington that European countries “will need to help Ukraine with boots on the ground” and insisted Kiev must have a “strong army.”

A number of EU leaders have rejected the idea, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni raising concerns over how many troops European nations would need to match Russia’s 1.3 million-strong military. Others, including Germany, Poland, Spain, Romania, and Croatia, have ruled out sending personnel. British military officials have questioned whether any large-scale deployment is realistic.

Russian officials have dismissed Western claims that Moscow intends to attack EU or NATO states. Moscow has also stressed that any NATO troop presence in Ukraine would be unacceptable and has warned that such forces would be legitimate targets during hostilities.