Marta Gichko10:03, 20.11.24

The dictator insists that Kyiv abandon its desire to join NATO.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is open to discussing a ceasefire deal in Ukraine with Donald Trump , but has ruled out any major territorial concessions and insisted Kiev abandon its NATO aspirations, Reuters reported , citing five sources familiar with the Kremlin’s position.

Speaking to the agency, five current and former Russian officials said the Kremlin could generally agree to freeze the conflict along the front line.

There may be room for talks on the precise division of the four eastern regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, according to three people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.

While Moscow claims the four regions are part of Russia, its troops on the ground control 70-80% of the territory, with about 26,000 square kilometers still held by Ukrainian forces.

Russia may also be open to withdrawing from relatively small parts of territory it controls in the Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions of northern and southern Ukraine, two officials said.

Putin said this month that any ceasefire agreement must reflect the “realities” on the ground, but he fears a short-term truce that would only allow the West to rearm Ukraine.

“If there is no neutrality, it is difficult to imagine the existence of any good-neighborly relations between Russia and Ukraine. Why? Because this would mean that Ukraine would constantly be used as an instrument in the hands of others and to the detriment of the interests of the Russian Federation,” Putin said in the Valdai discussion group on November 7.

Two sources said the decision by outgoing US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to fire US ATACMS missiles deep into Russia could complicate and delay any settlement – ​​and ratchet up Moscow’s demands as hardliners seek more of Ukraine. Kyiv used missiles on Russian territory for the first time on Tuesday, a move Moscow denounced as a major escalation.

If a ceasefire is not reached, Russia will continue to fight, two sources said.

“Putin has already said that freezing the conflict will not work in any way. And authorizing missiles is a very dangerous escalation by the United States,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters hours before the Russians reported the ATACMS strikes.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

Trump’s communications director Stephen Cheng told Reuters of the new US president: “He is the only person who can bring both sides together to negotiate peace and work to end the war and stop the killing.”

Trump has said he will speak directly with Putin in his efforts to broker a peace deal, though he has given no details on how he might reconcile the warring sides, which have both shown little sign of backing down.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country will not rest until all Russian soldiers are thrown out of its territory – based on the borders it received after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – although senior US generals have publicly said that is a very ambitious goal.

On June 14, Putin announced his first conditions for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must abandon its NATO ambitions and withdraw all its troops from all four Ukrainian regions claimed and largely controlled by Russia.

Russia is ready to talk

While Russia will not tolerate Ukraine joining NATO or the presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil, it is open to discussing security guarantees for Kyiv, according to five current and former officials.

Other Ukrainian concessions the Kremlin could seek include Kyiv agreeing to limit the size of its military and a commitment not to restrict the use of the Russian language, the sources said.

Dimitri Simes, one of the top Russian experts on US affairs, said a cease-fire could be reached relatively quickly to end a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and displaced millions of civilians. But a broader, long-term agreement that takes into account the security concerns of both Ukraine and Russia would be extremely difficult to achieve. He added:

“In my opinion, it would be very difficult to reach a major agreement because the positions of both sides are very far apart.”

One official familiar with the highest-level Kremlin discussions said the West would have to accept the “hard truth” that all the support it has given Ukraine cannot prevent Russia from winning the war.

Asked what a possible ceasefire might look like, two Russian sources referred to a draft agreement that was nearly approved in April 2022 following talks in Istanbul, and which Putin has publicly described as a possible basis for an agreement.

Under the draft, a copy of which Reuters has obtained, Ukraine would agree to permanent neutrality in exchange for international security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia, France and the United States.

One Russian official said there would be no deal unless Ukraine received security guarantees, adding:

“The question is how to avoid an agreement that locks the West into a possible direct confrontation with Russia one day.”

(C)UNIAN 2024