Russian president Vladimir Putin is open at the end of the large -scale scale War in Ukraine – but only if the West accepts radical concessions, in particular the judgment NATO“Sanctions of expansion and lifting to the east.
“Putin is ready to make peace, but not at any price,” said a senior Russian source with knowledge of the thought of the high -level Kremlin Reuters.
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According to three anonymous Russian sources cited by the media, the conditions would have included:
A commitment written by the main Western powers not to extend NATO more to the East – effectively excluding members of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
- Lifting of the main Western sanctions.
- A solution to the fate of frozen Russian sovereign assets.
- Protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine.
According to the first source, if Putin cannot obtain a peace agreement on his own conditions, he will seek to prove – by military climbing – which reject his offer would result in a “more painful” result later.
The Kremlin did not respond to requests for comments from Reuters.
No veto, said Kyiv
Ukraine has always rejected the idea that Moscow should have the power of veto on its aspirations to join NATO. The administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky did not comment on the report, but kyiv clearly indicated that he is looking for legally binding security guarantees with a power of application.
Spokesperson for the 32 current NATO members have also refused to respond. In the past, the Alliance said that it would not abandon its “open door” policy in response to Russian requests.
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More territory, less compromise
According to a second Russian source, Putin hardened her position on territorial concessions. The Kremlin would not be willing to withdraw from one of the four Ukrainian regions which it claims within the framework of the Russian Federation: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
“Putin hardened her position,” said the source.
In June 2023, the publicly indicated conditions of Putin included the abandonment of Ukraine abandoning the ambitions of NATO and withdrawing from all the territories of claim of Russia. Today, Russia controls most of Luhansk, more than 70% Donetsk and parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. It also contains smaller parts of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions and threatens the areas of Dnipropetrovsk.
Old promises, new requests
Putin has repeatedly cited verbal insurance from 1990 by Ensalon Secretary of State of the James Baker State to the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not extend “a thumb to the east”. This promise has never been put in writing, and the United States has since declared that it did not constitute a binding agreement.
The former CIA director, William J. Burns, recognized in his memory that such a conversation had taken place, but stressed that this had happened before the Soviet Union collapses and that no legal commitment was made.
Now Moscow would like this insurance in writing.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, said there is currently No calendar defined for writing a memorandum with Ukraine who could lay the foundations for a future peace agreement.
After May 19 phone call Between Putin and American President Donald Trump, Peskov acknowledged that discussions on such a document were in the early stages and that no decision had been made in the format or the place of future potential talks in Russia-Ukraine.
He said that the memorandum would be developed jointly and stressed that there is no deadline for his preparation, because the process would imply an exchange of complex proposals and negotiations.
Putin, speaking after the call, said Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine by describing the key principles of a possible regulation. However, Peskov has reiterated the position of Russia that the so-called “deep causes” of war must be addressed in the context of any sustainable resolution.
