“Russian officials believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to discussing a ceasefire in Ukraine with Donald Trump, but rules out de-occupation and insists that Ukraine abandon NATO.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Russian officials believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to discussing a ceasefire in Ukraine with Donald Trump, but rules out de-occupation and insists that Ukraine abandon NATO.
Source: Reuters citing five sources familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking
Details: In a report on what Putin would agree to in any deal brokered by Trump, five current and former Russian officials said the Kremlin could broadly agree to a freeze on the conflict along the front line.
According to three of the sources, who wished to remain anonymous, there is an opportunity for negotiations regarding the exact division of the four eastern regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson. Moscow claims that these four regions are part of Russia.
At the same time, two officials of the Russian Federation said that they may be open to the withdrawal of troops from relatively small areas of territory in the Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions.
Two sources said that US President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to launch US ATACMS missiles deep into Russia could complicate and delay any settlement – and strengthen Moscow’s demands.
If no ceasefire agreement is reached, both sources said, Russia will continue to fight.
The direct speech of Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov: “Putin has already said that it will not be possible to freeze the conflict. And allowing missile strikes is a very dangerous escalation on the part of the United States.”
In total, Russia captured more than 110,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory. Ukraine owns about 650 square kilometers of the Kursk region of Russia.
According to one of the sources, domestically, Putin may sell the ceasefire agreement, which saw Russia retain most of the territory of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as a victory and preserve the land bridge to Crimea.
The future of Crimea itself is not up for discussion, all Russian officials said.
One of the officials, a senior source familiar with the discussions at the highest level in the Kremlin, said the West would have to accept the “hard truth” that all the support it gave to Ukraine failed to prevent Russia from winning the war.