Russian strongman Vladimir Putin claimed during his traditional end-of-year press conference on Friday that Russia was “ready” for a peace agreement to end its invasion of Ukraine, but peace talks were impossible as “we truly do not see such readiness” from Kyiv.
The remark follows an intense month of attempted diplomacy by the White House, which unveiled a 28-point peace plan in the days leading up to Thanksgiving to end active hostilities in the invasion. After negotiations with the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that plan was reportedly whittled down to 20 points, but talks between representatives of the administration of President Donald Trump and Putin officials in Moscow have yet to yield any concrete agreements. Russia has continued to bomb Ukraine throughout the negotiations.
In his remarks during the event on Friday, known as “Results of the Year,” Putin claimed that his regime could end the war “by peaceful means,” but only if Ukraine ceded to Russia’s demands.
“We have always talked about this and we are ready and willing to end this conflict by peaceful means based on the principles that I outlined in June last year at the Russian Foreign Ministry and it includes the elimination of the root causes that led to this crisis,” Putin claimed, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Putin reportedly acknowledged that the Ukrainian government was indicating that it was willing “to engage in some kind of dialogue,” but “so far, we truly do not see such readiness.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Putin complained that Zelensky did not agree to concessions regarding the governances of Ukraine’s Donbass region in 2022, the year the Russian leader launched the “special military operation” to oust Zelensky.
“In 2022, when everything had already reached the brink, when the Ukrainian Kiev regime unleashed war in the southeast of Ukraine, we simply told them: listen, we will be forced to recognize these unrecognized republics,” Putin claimed, “and it would be better if you simply let people live peacefully as they wish, without your coups, without Russophobia and similar policies, just withdraw your troops from there and that will be all. They refused once again.”
“And then they refused, discarded all these agreements entirely. And now, in essence, they are refusing to end this conflict by peaceful means,” he added.
Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, five years before Zelensky, considered a “pro-Russia” candidate at the time, won the Ukrainian presidency. Putin annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and fueled war between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian “separatists” in the Donbass, though Russian forces were not officially involved in that conflict. In February 2022, Moscow declared Zelensky, one of the world’s few Jewish heads of state, a “Nazi” leader, and launched a full-scale invasion of the country. Putin would later go on to “annex” the Donbass regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
The latest round of negotiations seeking an end to the war began in late November, when the White House unveiled a 28-point peace plan. According to reports at the time, the plan initially required both sides to cease hostilities immediately. Ukraine would reportedly have to accept that it has lost control of the Donbass and Crimea and limit the size of its military, but in exchange would receive European Union membership and security guarantees. Zelensky would also reportedly have to hold an election in 100 days; Ukrainian law bans elections from taking place during a state of martial law, which would presumably end once the peace agreement takes place.
The initial peace deal has reportedly been edited following negotiations with Ukraine and Russia, but neither side has confirmed a definitive latest version of the peace deal. Following talks with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Putin lamented that the conversations were “difficult” but “very useful.”
“This was a necessary conversation, a very concrete one,” Putin said in early December.
The Russian government has consistently refused to discuss details of the peace plan in public. In the past week, Putin has elevated rhetoric suggesting that his government is preparing for increased military hostilities in 2026. On Wednesday, Putin said at a meeting with top military officers that, while he would prefer to “eliminate the root causes of the conflict” in Ukraine diplomatically, “if the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive dialogue, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means.”
“Our troops are different now, they are battle-hardened and there is no other such army in the world now,” Putin warned.
Contrary to Putin’s threats, the Ukrainian government has described the White House peace plan as “very workable” and requested only increased “security guarantees” to prevent Russia from invading once again.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” Zelensky said last week, indicating that he would be willing to give up Ukraine’s bid for membership in NATO in exchange for said security guarantees. Zelensky has specified that he would like security guarantees from the United States, backed by Congress.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here