Vladimir Putin offers to end Ukraine invasion at current front line

Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:

• Putin offers to halt his Ukraine invasion along the current front line

• A deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir

• South Korea fumes over Chinese fish farms

Vladimir Putin has offered to halt his invasion of Ukraine at the current front line as part of efforts to reach a peace deal with US President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

Putin’s proposal: The Russian president told Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, during a meeting in St Petersburg earlier this month that Moscow could relinquish its claims to areas of four partly occupied Ukrainian regions that remain under Kyiv’s control, three of the people said. The proposal is the first formal indication Putin has given since the war’s early months three years ago that Russia could step back from its maximalist demands to end the invasion.

The US has since floated ideas for a possible settlement that includes Washington recognizing Russian ownership of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, the people added, as well as at least acknowledging the Kremlin’s de facto control over the parts of the four regions it currently holds.

Is Putin baiting Trump? European officials briefed on US efforts to end the war cautioned that Putin would probably use the apparent concession as bait to lure Trump into accepting Russia’s other demands and forcing them on Ukraine as a fait accompli. Said one official: “There is a lot of pressure on Kyiv right now to give up on things so Trump can claim victory.”

While senior Ukrainian officials told the FT that they were amenable to some of the ideas floated by the Trump administration, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his position on the Black Sea peninsula yesterday, saying: “Ukraine will not recognize the occupation of Crimea. It’s our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine, there is nothing to discuss here.” Read the full story.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia report March CPI inflation figures.

• Indonesia monetary policy: Bank Indonesia is expected to hold interest rates steady at its meeting today. (Reuters)

• China-Iran ties: Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi visits Beijing. (Reuters)

• Global economy: The IIF Global Outlook Forum will be held alongside the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.

Five more top stories

1. More than 20 mostly Indian tourists are feared to have been killed in an attack by suspected militants in the restive Indian-controlled territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The territory’s chief minister Omar Abdullah said the attack was the most deadly against visitors to the region in decades. Here are more details.

2. US vice-president JD Vance has hailed what he called “very good progress” on a trade agreement between Washington and New Delhi, in comments during a visit to the north-western city of Jaipur. Narendra Modi’s government is moving quickly to negotiate the deal — without an agreement, India faces the threat of a 26 per cent “reciprocal” tariff on its exports to the US. Read more about Vance’s India trip.

• Related news: The Trump administration intends to press India to give online retailers such as Amazon and Walmart full access to its $125bn ecommerce market, as part of a trade deal being negotiated under the threat of increased tariffs.

3. Trump has said he has “no intention” of firing the Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, after indications that he could sack him sparked a sell-off in markets. The president has repeatedly hit out against the Fed chair’s refusal to cut interest rates and last week signaled he believed he could dismiss Powell before his term as central bank head comes to an end in May 2026. Read the full story.

• Trump vs Powell: The Fed chair is determined to see out his term, writes Gillian Tett, and lawyers at the central bank think he has good grounds to do so.

• More US news: Wall Street stocks rallied and oil prices climbed yesterday as the US Treasury secretary said a trade war with China was “unsustainable”.

4. Japanese investors offloaded more than $20bn in international bonds as Trump’s tariffs shook markets early this month, in a sign of how the Wall Street turbulence cascaded around the world. Japan has the biggest international stockpile of US Treasuries, with $1.1tn across public and private sectors, so its transactions are considered a proxy for buying or selling of US government debt.

• Japanese business: Nomura has agreed to buy Macquarie’s US and European public asset management business in the Japanese bank’s biggest international expansion since it bought Lehman Brothers assets in 2008.

5. Tesla is no longer predicting a rebound in its electric vehicle business this year, blaming tariff uncertainty, after its quarterly profits fell to the lowest level since the end of 2020. Sales have fallen as a consumer backlash to chief executive Elon Musk’s political interventions has hurt Tesla in major markets. Read more about Tesla’s disappointing results.

News in-depth

Anger is building in South Korea over Chinese fish farming installations in the Yellow Sea, opening another front in Beijing’s tensions with its neighbors over its assertive conduct in disputed maritime territory. Beijing insists the steel structures installed by Chinese companies are intended for fishing, but officials and experts in Seoul see them as the latest example of China’s “grey zone” tactics.

We’re also reading . . .

• Big Tech monopolies: The US has ruled against Google. Now Europe should finish the job to ensure competition can flourish, writes Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu.

• Plant-based egg: Record-high retail prices for chicken eggs in the US, driven by the country’s bird flu epidemic, are boosting the sales of vegan substitutes.

• Trade disputes: The US and not others will feel the most pain from Trump’s economic mistakes, argues Chris Giles.

Chart of the day

Five years after BP’s outgoing chair Helge Lund and former chief executive Bernard Looney bet the company’s future on renewable energy, BP is more a middle-tier energy company with uncertain prospects, worth just over a third of its rival Shell, and the most obvious takeover target in the sector. Our Big Read looks at how it ended up here and how BP is seeking to persuade investors it can catch up with the supermajors.

Take a break from the news

What does the future of beer look like? HTSI drinks columnist Alice Lascelles visited the new Heineken Studio in Amsterdam for a taste of innovations including flavored foams and a “personalized draught system”.