Vladimir Putin may have changed his goals in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin may have changed his goals in Ukraine to shorter-term ones, including strengthening Russia's control over captured territories and strengthening Russia's struggling economy. This is evidenced by new intelligence data studied by US and Western officials, CNN reports, citing its own sources.

These assessments indicate a change in recent intelligence data, according to which Putin believed that a state of war was in his interest and that he had everything he needed to fight for a long time and conquer all of Ukraine.

According to sources in the American media, US President Donald Trump and his negotiators now believe that Putin may be more inclined to consider a peace agreement. But senior American officials remain skeptical of Putin and his “peaceful intentions.”

“I think he can think about what a reasonable short-term goal is,” a senior Western intelligence official said.

The pressure from Trump puts Putin in a difficult position. At the same time, a potential economic cooperation agreement between the United States and Russia would help Putin declare victory at home and “feel like he has achieved something worthy of a significant pause” in the war that could continue later.

The official pointed to Putin’s repeated references to the historical origins of the Russian people and said he has a long-term goal of conquering most of Ukraine, “at least the areas that Putin considers to be the cradle of Russian civilization.” A senior European official agreed that Moscow was willing to play along with the US and limit its short-term goals to improve relations with Washington, but “it has clearly not given up its maximalist military goals.”

Putin’s mindset, for whom control of Ukraine was a priority, has changed since Trump came to power. The Kremlin is now ready to use the negotiations to achieve short-term gains, the American media writes.

"Russia's goal is to gain recognition of as many territories as possible and make Ukraine as weak as possible", a senior American official said.

He claims that "there is no indication" that Putin will actually succeed in conquering the rest of Ukraine, given the slow progress of Russian forces on the front lines.

Intelligence also doubts that Putin and his entourage are conducting peace talks in good faith, and are not trying to drag them out and prolong the war.

On April 26, the Kremlin said that Russian President Putin was allegedly ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine "without preconditions".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready to hold talks with Russia in any format, but only after a ceasefire.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has publicly announced Russia's conditions for peace talks on Ukraine, and they contradict the US administration's plan. The conditions include, among others, an "imperative" for international recognition of Crimea and four regions of Ukraine as Russian, "demilitarization" and "denazification" of Ukraine, refusal to join NATO, and neutral status as a non-aligned country.

On May 1, US Vice President J.D. Vance said that there was a "very big difference" between the positions of Russia and Ukraine, but that the Trump administration planned to focus on ending the war in the next 100 days.