REPORT: Putin Wants to End Ukranian War Along Current Lines, Plans to ‘Sell Victory’ to Russian People

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a ceasefire in Ukraine along current battle lines, according to a report from Reuters on Friday.

However, the Russian leader is willing to continue fighting if the West rejects his attempts to broker a ceasefire agreement.

Reuters reports:

Three of the sources, familiar with discussions in Putin’s entourage, said the veteran Russian leader had expressed frustration to a small group of advisers about what he views as Western-backed attempts to stymie negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’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 four, a senior Russian source who has worked with Putin and has knowledge of top-level conversations in the Kremlin.

…

The appointment last week of economist Andrei Belousov as Russia’s defence minister was seen by some Western military and political analysts as placing the Russian economy on a permanent war footing in order to win a protracted conflict.

It followed sustained battlefield pressure and territorial advances by Russia in recent weeks. However, the sources said that Putin, re-elected in March for a new six-year term, would rather use Russia’s current momentum to put the war behind him.

They did not directly comment on the new defence minister. 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.

However, any ceasefire agreement will likely need the backing of the United States. A State Department spokesperson said that any peace agreement must respect “territorial integrity, within its internationally recognised borders.”

“The Kremlin has yet to demonstrate any meaningful interest in ending its war, quite the opposite,” the spokesperson said.

Last month, Congress approved over $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine as it seeks to prolong the war between the two sides despite the risk of escalation between the world’s leading nuclear powers.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent a delegation to Washington this week to demand that the Biden regime reverse a ban on the firing of U.S. missiles on Russian territory. Ukrainian MP David Arahamiya, who led the delegation, said the request came directly from the country’s military generals.

“It’s like if somebody were to attack Washington, D.C., from the Virginia state, and you say we’re not going to hit Virginia for some reason,” he said. “It’s crazy. Military people, like generals, they don’t understand. So they are pushing us as politicians, like stop [the policy] this is insane.”

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