Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to stop war in Ukraine and agree to a truce in which troops will remain on the current front line. Reuters wrote about this on Friday, May 24, citing four Russian sources. At the same time, it is argued that Putin is ready to continue the war if Kyiv and the West do not agree to a truce on these terms.
Moscow and Kyiv have not yet commented on the agency’s publication. Putin previously said that Russia is ready for negotiations if they “take into account the situation on the ground.” At the same time, he argued that Russia still seeks to fulfill the so-called goals of the “special military operation” (the official Russian name for the war in Ukraine), formulated extremely unclearly (“denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine”). The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly stated that they are ready for negotiations only after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the internationally recognized territory of the country – within the so-called borders of 1991, at the time of the collapse of the USSR.
According to Reuters, three sources familiar with discussions in the circle of the Russian president told the agency that Putin in a narrow circle allegedly expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the Ukrainian the authorities are not ready to negotiate on his terms, and the West supports them in this. The fourth source, who, as Reuters clarifies, previously worked with Putin, says that he is ready to “freeze the war,” but at the same time he can continue to fight.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in response to a Reuters query, said that Russia does not want an “eternal war.” and ready to negotiate – but only for the sake of achieving your goals.
According to sources cited by Reuters, Putin believes that control over a number of Ukrainian territories achieved during the war could be presented to the Russian people as a “victory” in the event of a truce. At the same time, a new decisive offensive will require another mobilization, which, according to one of the sources, Putin does not want, remembering the unpopularity of the so-called partial mobilization in September 2022.
An international meeting on the issue will be held in Switzerland in June about the possible end of the war. Russia was not invited to the conference, unlike a number of neutral countries. Ukraine expects from the meeting an agreement on the positions of dozens of countries on the issue of demands on Russia as a possible condition for further negotiations.
Moscow, however, has already stated that it does not agree with the so-called peace formula, which would provide for the withdrawal of Russian troops from all occupied territories of Ukraine. At the same time, Russian representatives speak positively, for example, about the position of China, which, in fact, calls for negotiations to begin without preconditions.
The United States and other Western countries argue that Vladimir Putin currently has no real interest in serious peace talks. Moscow, in turn, accuses the West of prohibiting Ukraine from negotiating.
All sources also claim that Putin is not lying when he says that Russia is not going to attack NATO countries. A number of countries – Alliance members, including the United States, have expressed concerns that if Ukraine wins, Putin's next target could be NATO countries such as the Baltic states.
At the front, the initiative is now in the hands of Russian troops, but in recent months they have been unable to achieve a breakthrough. Their most significant success for the whole year remains the capture of Avdeevka. The Ukrainian military, in turn, is increasingly striking targets deep in the rear of Russian troops.
The fact that Putin wants to “freeze” conflict along the current front line, a number of Western media reported at the end of last year. In February, Reuters wrote that the United States then rejected such a proposal. Neither Moscow, Washington nor Kyiv have officially confirmed that such discussions were taking place.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported armed separatists in the Donbass, and in 2022 launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Kyiv and the West, like most UN countries, characterized it as unprovoked aggression. Russia managed to occupy part of Ukrainian territory. Tens of thousands of military personnel on both sides, thousands of civilians in Ukraine died in the battles, and there were casualties among Russian residents. The war is assessed as the largest in Europe since the Second World War.
Prepared by: Sergei Daga