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Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, said the current proposal -- which she described as clumsily drafted -- leaves far too much room for interpretation, making it the sort of document Putin would never sign.

The proposal's vague wording on Ukraine's neutrality and NATO's future expansion, she said, would demand concrete "documents, timelines and commitments -- none of which appear in the draft".

According to Stanovaya, Putin is unlikely to retreat from his main goal of subjugating Ukraine and will instead push for a revised version of the current plan that more fully reflects Russia's interests.