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Russia's occupation of almost 20% of Ukraine would be de facto recognised behind existing front lines, in effect freezing the conflict in four Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

But there seems to be a framework along the following lines: Russia would halt its invasion along current lines, and would give up its ambition to control the remaining parts of the four regions of eastern Ukraine it has yet to occupy, namely Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Ukraine's air force issued raid alerts for the Kyiv region, as well as Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia.

Witkoff appeared to be referring to the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in eastern Ukraine, much of which are under Russian military occupation after Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion in 2022 with the aim of taking control of the whole country.

Ukrainian officials reject this, but Moscow says that at the very least it wants to fully capture four Ukrainian regions it partly controls - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - in addition to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.