The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, He is willing to stop the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognizes the current battlefield lines and warns that he is prepared to continue fighting if kyiv and the West do not respond to his offer.
Putin would be willing to end the war if Ukraine gives up the territory lost in the battle, which would include large areas of the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson which, according to Russia, “they belong to us in their entirety.”
This is confirmed by four Russian sources Reuters. Three of these sources, familiar with the environment of Putinthey assure that the Russian president expressed his frustration to a small group of advisers over what he sees as Western-backed attempts to impede negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to scrap talks.
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“Putin can fight as long as it takes, but is also willing to have a ceasefire and freeze the war,” point out one of these four sources who, in addition, has worked with Putin and is aware of high-level conversations in the Kremlin.
It is not negotiable
In any case, keep the territories won on the battlefield It is not negotiable. Freezing the conflict along current lines would leave Russia in possession of important areas of those four Ukrainian regions that it formally incorporated into Russia in September 2022, but without total control of any of them.
Such an agreement would not achieve the goals that Moscow set for itself at the time, when it said that Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson They now belonged to him in their entirety.
Freezing the conflict along current lines would leave Russia in possession of large areas of these four Ukrainian regions that it formally incorporated into Russia in September 2022, but without full control of any of them.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, He already stated at the time that the return of these four regions cannot be considered because they are now permanently part of Russia according to its own Constitution.
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Putin this Friday with Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.
Sell a Russian victory
Two of the sources of Reuters confirm that with the advances in the Ukraine war by Russia, Putin has more than enough to sell a victory to the Russian people. In fact, they explain that any new advance on Ukrainian territory would require another mobilization of Army personnel at the national level, something that Putin would not want when he is aware that his popularity plummeted in the first mobilization he made in September 2022 and thousands of Russians of military age left the country.
These sources also confirm that Putin does not have plans to attack countries of NATO.
It must be remembered that Zelensky has repeated on several occasions that peace on the terms of Putin is impossible and has promised to recover lost territory, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. In fact, he signed a decree in 2022 that formally declared “impossible” any conversation with Putin.
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In this sense, one of the sources highlights that No agreement could be reached while Zelensky was in power unless Russia ignored him and came to power. to an agreement with Washington. However, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said last week in kyiv that he did not believe that Putin was interested in addressing serious negotiations.
The US rejected another offer from Putin
On June 15 and 16, Switzerland will host the Peace Summit on Ukraine. This meeting, called at the initiative of Zelensky, asked that Putin not attend, something that for Moscow invalidates any agreement reached there.
“We are ready for the discussion. We never refuse,” Putin said just a few days ago during his visit to China.
Reuters has contacted him US State Department on this issue raised by the Russian president and point out that any peace initiative must respect the “territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its internationally recognized borders” and described Russia as the only obstacle to peace in Ukraine.
“The Kremlin has yet to demonstrate any significant interest in ending its war, quite the contrary,” they say from the United States.
Despite this statement, Reuters assures that, according to one of his sources, The US rejected a previous offer from Putin to reach a ceasefire. After this, the Russian president confirmed to his people that he was willing to gain as much territory as possible to increase pressure on Ukraine.
Today, Russia controls 18% of Ukraine and this month they advanced towards the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
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