Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to insist that Moscow, as part of a peace deal with Kiev, must gain full control over the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, which Russia has illegally annexed and partially occupied. Three Bloomberg sources in Moscow familiar with the talks said this.
US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff tried to persuade Putin to agree to a ceasefire and end the war along the current front lines during a meeting on April 25, two sources told the agency. But Putin, they said, insisted on his maximalist demands for territory.
The talks are currently at an impasse, one of the sources told Bloomberg. He believes that further progress is possible only with a personal meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump.
Vladimir Putin’s unwillingness to back down from his maximalist demands is a blow to Donald Trump’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire and a final peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. All this is happening against the background of growing dissatisfaction in the White House with the lack of progress in negotiations to end the Russian-Ukrainian war. The US leadership has already threatened to withdraw from the negotiations if Russia and Ukraine do not reach an agreement in the near future.
There are still no signs that Putin will back down from his territorial demands and accept US proposals to end the war, European officials told Bloomberg. They noted that the negotiations are ongoing and these assessments may change. According to them, in the next few weeks it will become clear whether Washington will be able to reach an agreement between Moscow and Kiev or the US will withdraw from the negotiations.
The Atlantic magazine writes that in essence Russia is getting everything it wants from Trump and giving nothing in return. This says a lot about the first 100 days of the American leader's administration and even more about the new era in international relations. In the long term, Putin is weak, but in the short term, Ukraine is weaker and Putin is betting on its collapse before his own forces collapse. He has always believed that time is on his side, the publication points out.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that the first step towards peace in Ukraine is for Russia to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, the "Reuters" agency reported. "They [the Russians] must take clear steps towards ending the war, and we insist that the first step be an unconditional and complete ceasefire. Russia must do this," the Ukrainian president stressed. Zelensky also said that Ukraine is preparing for more discussions with the United States, which are aimed at putting pressure on Moscow to participate in talks. "We are choosing the pressure points in Russia that will most strongly encourage Moscow to engage in diplomacy," the Ukrainian president noted.