{"id":44250,"date":"2025-04-23T16:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44250\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T16:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:12:13","slug":"is-russias-putin-ready-to-stop-ukraine-war-along-current-front-line-russia-ukraine-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44250\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Russia\u2019s Putin ready to stop Ukraine war along current front line? | Russia-Ukraine war News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyiv, Ukraine \u2013<\/strong> Finishing a cigarette with a final deep puff outside a hospital building in central Kyiv, a wounded Ukrainian drone operator sums up Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s readiness to end the Ukraine war along the current front lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t trust these leaks, the \u2026 vampire is just dragging the talks out,\u201d Arseny, a 31-year-old recovering from a cranial wound that left him blind in one eye, told Al Jazeera while standing near a blossoming apple tree.<\/p>\n

He referred to a Financial Times<\/a> report on Tuesday that suggested that Putin could \u201crelinquish\u201d Moscow\u2019s claims on four partly-occupied Ukrainian regions.<\/p>\n

In September 2022, seven months after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Moscow recognised the regions as part of Russia even though it did not fully control them \u2013 and began losing some occupied areas within weeks.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE-WHO(Al Jazeera)<\/p>\n

In return for the Kremlin\u2019s concession, the US may recognise Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014, as part of Russia, and \u201cacknowledge\u201d the Kremlin\u2019s de facto control over the four regions\u2019 occupied parts, the Financial Times claimed, citing officials familiar with the talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grandpa in the bunker wants to fool [US President Donald] Trump and then find an excuse to resume the war,\u201d Arseny, who withheld his name in accordance with the wartime protocol, said, referring to Putin. \u201cWe\u2019ve known this imperial tactic for centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kremlin\u2019s chief spokesman rejected the report, but fell short of denying details about Crimea\u2019s recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany fakes are being published these days, including by respectable publications,\u201d Dmitry Peskov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday. \u201cThat\u2019s why one has to listen only to original sources\u201d of information, he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Russia doesn\u2019t have resources to continue the war\u2019<\/p>\n

However, a researcher with Germany\u2019s University of Bremen is confident that the ceasefire along the current front line is a viable option for Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia doesn\u2019t have resources to continue the war and, moreover, achieve any large-scale conquests,\u201d Nikolay Mitrokhin told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Western sanctions, a dire shortage of qualified labour, and the Russian economy\u2019s militarisation triggered an abrupt fall in production in many industries, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Putin, Washington\u2019s recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and Ukraine\u2019s refusal to join NATO are a good trophy that [would look] convincing for the public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The trophy \u201cwould nurture further hopes that [the Kremlin] doesn\u2019t have to rush to fulfil so that [Russian forces] can rest, regroup and further act according to the situation\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

A deal with the European Union, whose member states overwhelmingly oppose the dismemberment of Ukraine, \u201ccould be reached somehow later\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

However, Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not seem convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an independent player whose game can thwart the deal,\u201d Mitrokhin said, referring to Ukraine\u2019s president. \u201cBut so far, Zelenskyy seems to be in the mood to try and reach a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin is ready to formally agree with some of Trump\u2019s demands \u2013 only to come up with more demands of his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is double-dealing, Putin\u2019s traditional style,\u201d Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an attempt to keep Trump on the hook in negotiations, an attempt to haggle in return for a virtual agreement to cease fire along the front line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The concession may look like a \u201cformal step\u201d towards Washington\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

But in fact, Putin wants to get much more, including the immediate lifting of all sanctions the West slapped on Russia since Crimea\u2019s 2014 annexation, Fesenko said.<\/p>\n

Putin \u201cis dragging Trump into the negotiation process, but on Russia\u2019s terms\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

He noted Washington\u2019s readiness to recognise Crimea as a \u201cprincipal mistake\u201d that caused a crisis in the talks that have been dragging on for months despite Trump\u2019s claim that he could end the war \u201cin 24 hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

If the White House does not back out of the Crimea conundrum, the talks will stall, Fesenko said.<\/p>\n

Crimea seems to have indeed become the bone of contention.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv would never recognise the peninsula as part of Russia.<\/p>\n

His words apparently forced Trump\u2019s special Ukraine envoy Steve Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to refuse to attend peace talks in London that were scheduled for Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Even though the Ukrainian delegation arrived, London said the talks<\/a> with other European and United States officials will not take place.<\/p>\n

\u2018They don\u2019t have enough power\u2019<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Moscow is boosting its push along the crescent-shaped front line that stretches more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles).<\/p>\n

But military analysts say Moscow simply lacks manpower and weaponry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have enough power,\u201d General Lieutenant Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

He said that Moscow is trying to kick Ukrainian forces out of their toeholds in the western Russian regions<\/a> of Kursk and Belgorod.<\/p>\n

Putin also wants to maintain a buffer zone in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, where Russia occupied several border towns but failed to advance towards larger cities, Romanenko said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe task from the top is to reach the [borders of the eastern] Dnipropetrovsk region by May 9,\u201d when Moscow will lavishly celebrate the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany\u2019s defeat in World War II, Romanenko said.<\/p>\n

Under Putin, the May 9 celebrations<\/a> have become the focal point of Russia\u2019s political calendar.<\/p>\n

A Ukrainian political analyst-turned-serviceman thinks that the war will drag on for several more months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sure that by fall or winter we can squeeze serious concessions out of Russia because of economic reasons\u201d such as continuing sanctions, Kirill Sazonov wrote on Telegram.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo four regions, no official recognition of occupied areas, the termination of hostilities along the front line, foreign peacekeeping contingents to control the ceasefire \u2013 and that\u2019s it,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Moscow wants to break Ukraine\u2019s defences to resume its offensive on eastern and southern fronts and then \u201cuse their position of power in talks,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scenario is simple and understandable, the war is going on, the sides didn\u2019t run out of arguments on the battlefield,\u201d Sazonov concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyiv, Ukraine \u2013 Finishing a cigarette with a final deep puff outside a hospital building in central Kyiv,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[299,12,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-44250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","12":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114388162580787171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}