Posted on by BlackMask Financial

Kremlin: Putin ready for negotiations on Ukraine

  • Kremlin may be open to freeze current front line, Reuters says
  • Zelenskiy earlier said his country won’t concede on territory

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov ensured on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to restart negotiations on the Ukrainian conflict with international leaders, including United States President-elect Donald Trump. “The president has indeed repeatedly – or rather, constantly – stated that he is ready for contacts and negotiations,” Peskov said at a press briefing. However, he stressed that a ‘freeze’ of the conflict along the existing frontlines is not an option for Moscow, adding that Russia is committed to achieving its “special military operation” goals. Furthermore, the spokesperson reiterated that the outgoing US President Joe Biden’s administration is determined to fuel the conflict in Ukraine, stressing that it is doing everything to continue the war.

Russia said it was ready to talk with US President-elect Donald Trump about a potential cease-fire with Ukraine, stoking speculation about how the conflict will eventually end even as it has intensified on all fronts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Tuesday his country wouldn’t make concessions on sovereignty or territory. Zelenskiy’s own formula for peace is based on obtaining a clear path to North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership and security guarantees for protection until it joins.

Reuters reported that Putin may agree to discuss a carve-up of four regions in Ukraine — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — that Russia annexed in 2022, but doesn’t fully control. The Russian leader has declared them to be “forever” part of his country, although only about 77% of the four regions are under the Kremlin’s control, according to Bloomberg calculations based on open-source data. Russia may also be ready to pull out its forces from small slices of territory it holds in Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions, according to two of the officials cited in the report. Vladimir Putin has said any cease-fire talks must take account of “realities” on the ground
Source: Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project  With Trump set to take office in two months, both sides have been seeking to strengthen their hands ahead of what could be a period of hard negotiations.

Trump has vowed to end the war quickly, without saying how. His return to the White House also raises the prospect of a sharp cut in US aid to Ukraine, he could also threaten to bolster support to Kyiv to try to pressure Russia into a deal. There are conversations happening in both Kyiv and Moscow to prepare for the shift coming in Washington. Russia has intensified its bombing of Ukraine in recent days. The US embassy in Kyiv closed Wednesday due to what it said was “specific information of a potential significant air attack on November 20.” Russia on Sunday launched one of its largest missile and drone strikes since the start of the war, hitting energy infrastructure and other targets across Ukraine. Putin still insists on Ukraine abandoning its ambitions to join NATO and a ban on the alliance’s troops being stationed on Ukrainian soil, but he’s ready to discuss security guarantees for the neighboring state, according to the Reuters report. Outgoing US President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles inside Russia could complicate and delay any settlement, Reuters cited two of the people as saying. On Tuesday, Putin signed a decree lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, just days after Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to carry out strikes deep inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles. Moscow on Tuesday said Ukraine used US-made ATACMS to strike Russian territory for the first time.

nn audio file:
this is called posturing