Fox News reports on proposed three-stage peace plan by Russia and US. Lavrov claims he hasn't seen it

The United States and Russia are reportedly offering a three-stage peace plan that includes holding presidential elections in Ukraine. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that he has not seen the plan.

This was shared on social media by Fox News journalist Jacqui Heinrich, citing sources close to the Russia-US negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

According to Heinrich, the plan reportedly proposed by the United States and Russia includes a ceasefire, presidential elections in Ukraine, and then the signing of a final peace agreement.

According to several foreign diplomatic sources, both the US and Russia consider holding new elections in Ukraine a "key condition" for the success of the settlement process. However, Heinrich later reported that an American source familiar with the negotiations said that the issue of elections "may be part of future talks, but not today."

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian side, cited by the journalist's diplomatic sources, noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin highly rates the probability of electing a "puppet president" in Ukraine and believes that any candidate other than current President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be "more flexible and ready for negotiations and concessions."

Sources also added that US President Donald Trump is allegedly ready to accept any election outcome, including the possibility of electing a "pro-Russian puppet." Trump, like Putin, reportedly considers Zelenskyy's chances of re-election to be low.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's reaction

Russia's top diplomat responded to a journalist's question about the plan mentioned by Fox News, according to BBC.

Lavrov stated that he had not seen the plan but had heard reports about the document, which Trump’s special representative, Keith Kellogg, allegedly presented in Poland. According to Lavrov, the American delegation in Riyadh called this plan a fake.

• On February 18, negotiations took place in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, between US Secretary of State Mark Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They lasted nearly 5 hours.