Putin secretly said he was open to a ceasefire in Ukraine: report

• Russia's war in Ukraine has lasted longer than President Vladimir Putin expected.
• The New York Times reported that Putin had considered a ceasefire since the first weeks of the Russian invasion.
• This renewed interest, but on the condition that Russia could keep the territories it had seized.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has privately said he is open to peace talks with Ukraine several times since the first weeks of the invasion. New York times mentioned. But some Western officials told The Times they remained skeptical.

One of the first cases came weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which was quickly viewed as a failed military campaign as the Ukrainian resistance proved more resilient than expected, The Times reported. But talks on a ceasefire collapsed after Russia's atrocities against civilians and soldiers in Ukraine, according to the report.

In the fall of 2022, Putin explored peace talks again after Russian forces withdrew from Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region in September, US officials told the Times. However, senior US officials said it was too early for talks, and that the ceasefire was on the condition that Russia could keep the roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory it had occupied.

More recently, Putin has shown renewed interest in a ceasefire as the war approaches its second year, and we have yet to see significant progress on the front line – on both sides.

Two former senior Russian officials close to the Kremlin, along with US and international officials who received a letter about Putin's interest in peace talks, told The Times that the Russian leader has expressed that interest since at least September on the same terms that were set last year. In the fall.

“He is really prepared to stop at the current positions,” one former Russian official told The Times. “He's not willing to step back a meter.”

US officials also told the newspaper that the truce would keep Ukraine a sovereign state, with Kiev as its capital, while Russia would retain control over the occupied territories.

But it is unclear whether Ukraine will accept a ceasefire under these circumstances. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly pledged to regain all territory seized by Russia, and senior U.S. officials told the Times they do not see any influential Ukrainian politician agreeing to those terms.

But American and Western officials remain skeptical.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkević told The Times: “They never respected any agreements, and they immediately violated them when they saw fit.”

Putin's quiet interest in peace talks through back-channel communications is markedly at odds with the message the Russian leader is sending to the public.

On December 14, in his first press conference allowing Western media since the February invasion, Putin said that Russia's goals remained the same and that there would be no ceasefire until they were achieved.

“There will be peace when we achieve our goals,” Putin said. Associated Press. “Victory will be ours.”