by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News May 24, 2024
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin said he is ready to call a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine if it recognizes the current battlefield lines, Russian sources say.
Europe’s largest ground conflict since World War II has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides and led to sweeping Western sanctions on Russia’s economy.
Sources familiar with discussions in Putin’s entourage told Reuters that Putin had expressed frustration to a small group of advisers about what he views as Western-backed attempts to stymie negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to rule out talks.
“Putin can fight for as long as it takes, but Putin is also ready for a ceasefire to freeze the war,” said another of the insiders, a senior Russian source who has worked with Putin and has knowledge of top level conversations at the Kremlin.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in response to a request for comment, said Putin has repeatedly made clear Russia was open to dialogue to achieve its goals, saying the country did not want an eternal war.
Ukraine’s foreign and defense ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
Based on their knowledge of conversations in the upper ranks of the Kremlin, two of the sources said Putin was of the view that gains in the war so far were enough to sell a victory to the Russian people.
Three sources said Putin understood any dramatic new advances would require another nationwide mobilization, which he didn’t want, with one source, who knows the Russian president, saying his popularity dipped after the first mobilization in September 2022 which triggered hundreds of thousands of draft age men to leave the country.
Zelensky has repeatedly said peace on Putin’s terms is a non-starter. He has vowed to retake lost territory, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. He signed a decree in 2022 that formally declared any talks with Putin “impossible.”
One of the sources predicted no agreement could happen while Zelensky was in power, unless Russia bypassed him and struck a deal with Washington. However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Kyiv last week, told reporters he did not believe Putin was interested in serious negotiations.
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