Vladimir Putin declared his readiness for negotiations with the newly elected US President Donald Trump regarding a possible end to the war in Ukraine. However, according to five sources familiar with the Kremlin's position, its conditions remain extremely favorable for Russia and difficult for Ukraine.
As Reuters points out, Trump, who has vowed to quickly end the war, is returning to the White House at a time when Russia's position is strengthening. The army of the Russian Federation is moving forward at the fastest pace since the first days of the 2022 invasion.
In the first detailed report on what President Putin would agree to in any Trump-brokered deal, five current and former Russian officials said the Kremlin could broadly agree to a "freeze" on the front-line war.
According to three interlocutors of the agency, there may be an opportunity for negotiations regarding the exact division of the four eastern regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson.
Although Moscow claims that these four regions are fully part of Russia and protected by the country's nuclear umbrella, its forces on the ground control 70-80% of the territory, and about 26,000 sq. km are still held by Ukrainian troops.
According to the two officials, Russia may also be ready to withdraw from the relatively small swaths of territory it holds in the Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions in northern and southern Ukraine.
Putin said this month that any ceasefire agreement must reflect "realities" on the ground, but he "fears a short-term truce that will only allow the West to rearm Ukraine," Reuters writes.
