Putin Says Russia Ready to End War Despite Rejecting Compromise
President Vladimir Putin said he is willing to discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine, despite rejecting changes sought by Kyiv and Europe to the U.S. peace plan drafted with Moscow.
Putin said he has "practically agreed" to the proposals to end the war outlined in summit talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska in August.
"To say that we reject something is simply incorrect and has no basis in fact," he said Friday at his annual televised press conference in Moscow. "This issue is entirely on the side of our Western opponents, so to speak, primarily the leaders" of Ukraine and Europe, he said.
Putin spoke after weeks of intensive negotiations involving the U.S., Ukraine, and Europe over a 28-point peace plan that emerged last month after discussions between Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev.
The U.S.-Russian plan initially surprised Ukraine and its European allies by adopting a series of Kremlin demands that Kyiv had flatly rejected. Some of the most contentious issues have been removed or modified after interventions from Kyiv and Europe, and talks continue on the modified proposal amid growing optimism that it could form the basis of a peace deal.
However, Putin has not said whether he is willing to accept the plan in its current form. Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are expected to meet separately with US officials for further talks in Florida over the weekend, including on a plan for post-war security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump is "making serious efforts to end this conflict," Putin said. "We also very much want to live in peace and without military conflict next year."
The Russian leader has refused to ease maximalist demands for territory in eastern and southern Ukraine, including parts of the region that Moscow's forces have failed to capture during more than a decade of fighting since 2014. Putin's 2022 order to invade Ukraine sparked Europe's largest conflict since World War II.
He has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire to allow space for negotiations. Trump in October canceled plans for a second summit in Budapest after the US concluded that Russia was not ready to abandon its war aims.
European Union leaders agreed late last night to lend Ukraine €90 billion ($106 billion) over the next two years in an effort to strengthen Kyiv's negotiating position and keep the war-torn country afloat. The loan will be funded from joint debt and backed by the bloc's budget, a significant shift from the bloc's initial plan to use frozen Russian assets in Europe.
Despite defying predictions of collapse, Russia's economy is reeling from the impact of unprecedented sanctions imposed by the US and its Western allies in response to the invasion. More than half of its emergency reserves have been depleted as the budget deficit widens amid slowing growth and declining commodity revenues, including from oil and gas.
Faced with a widening gap in its military budget, the Russian government has resorted to increasingly expensive borrowing to help finance the war. To date, the government has issued 7.9 trillion rubles ($98 billion) in debt, known as OFZs, far surpassing the previous record set in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This was Putin's third press conference since launching his invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin canceled the event in late 2022 due to the Russian army's string of battlefield defeats in Ukraine.
He began a long tradition of annual press conferences early in his 26-year presidency. Over the years, the events have evolved into carefully orchestrated events designed by the Kremlin to showcase Putin addressing local social and economic issues raised by ordinary Russians frustrated by the lack of action from regional officials. (alg)
Source: Bloomberg.com
