Putin’s ‘peace’ is a partitioned Ukraine – The Spectator

Is Vladimir Putin trying to end his war in Ukraine? According to recent reports, the Kremlin has launched a new back-channel diplomacy to reach out to senior officials in the Joe Biden administration. Putins message: to signal that he could accept a ceasefire that freezes the fighting along current lines.

Reactions to the story have been furious. Some Ukrainians, sheltering from Russias biggest-ever missile and drone assaults of the war over Christmas, saw it as evidence of a nefarious Washington insider plot to sell Kyiv down the river. President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Putins initiative as disingenuous, saying that he saw no sign Russia genuinely wanted to negotiate. We just see brazen willingness to kill, he told the New York Times.

Even Zaluzhny has admitted that a magical breakthrough to reconquer its lost territories was unrealistic

In one sense, Zelensky is right: Putins ceasefire proposal will lock in Russias military gains, allow Putin to claim victory, reward aggression and effectively partition Ukraine. Nor does Putins reported offer to talk show any real willingness to compromise. We have repeatedly proved that we are able to solve the most difficult tasks and will never retreat, because there is no force that can divide us, Putin told his nation in his New Years address hardly the words of a man preparing any kind of climbdown.

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Putin's 'peace' is a partitioned Ukraine - The Spectator