Putin expressed a willingness for peace, but made it clear that he meant peace on Russian terms.
Russia calls for peace even as its war in Ukraine continues for 44 weeks. Meanwhile, Moscow has rejected Ukraine's peace terms and threatened that its military fate will be even worse if Russia's terms are not accepted. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that "our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but on the contrary, to end this war."
White House national security spokesman John Kirby expressed skepticism, saying Putin had "showed absolutely no sign of being willing to negotiate" to end the 10-month conflict. Ukraine's General Staff reported that it observed an increase in Russian rail shipments of troops, equipment and ammunition to war zones on Friday.
Geolocation footage shows a train carrying Russian T-90M and T-62M tanks heading from Rostov, Russia to Luhansk . Meanwhile, Ukraine's actions on the eastern front may be bearing fruit. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said the pace of Russian attacks in Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk was slowing.
Ukraine has also maintained long-range drone attacks on Russian air bases, most likely to have a psychological effect and demonstrate that it can strike deep into Russian territory. Russian sources reported that an explosion occurred on Sunday evening near the Engels Air Force Base in Saratov, 500 kilometers (310 miles) inside Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the Russian military shot down a Ukrainian drone approaching Engels Airport at low altitude. The wreckage of the drone killed three Russian servicemen.
Putin used Christmas to reiterate his peace offer, saying in a television interview that Russia was ready to negotiate. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was more direct, threatening to issue an ultimatum to Ukraine. The "demilitarization" mentioned by Russia usually means giving up Ukrainian territory as a buffer zone and giving up the right to join NATO in the future.
Putin and other Russian officials often refer to Zelensky and his government as Nazis, and "denazification" is often thought of as referring to the overthrow of the current Ukrainian government. Lavrov said Ukraine's "futile" resistance, encouraged by the United States, was the reason for prolonging and escalating the war. He said, "As for the duration of the conflict, the initiative lies with the Ukrainian regime, and Washington is behind it." "They can stop their meaningless resistance at any time."
So far, the United States has been Ukraine's biggest supporter. The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved $45 billion in defense and financial aid to Kyiv, building on the $70 billion in aid approved earlier this year.
Economist Andre Frank of the Kiel Institute for World Economics told the outside world that the United States, Britain and Germany are the three largest countries providing military assistance to Ukraine, with current commitments of 22.86 billion euros (24.37 billion U.S. dollars), 4.13 billion euros (4.4 billion U.S. dollars) and 2.34 billion euros (2.49 billion U.S. dollars) respectively. Frank said that so far, EU member states have collectively and individually committed 11.71 billion euros ($12.48 billion).
Zelensky outlined a peace plan at the G20 summit in Indonesia last month, and on Monday he asked the body's new chairman, India, and its leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to help implement the plan. Zelensky said, "It was on this platform that I announced the peace plan, and now I count on India to participate in its implementation." Zelensky's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine is seeking to launch a peace conference by February under the supervision of the United Nations.
The "peace plan" includes the withdrawal of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territories occupied since 2014, including Donbass and the Crimea region. Zelensky also wants Russian commanders and politicians to be held accountable in war crimes tribunals.In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (Dmitry Peskov) said that Russia will not be bound by conditions set by other countries.
