Steve Rosenberg: Kremlin tight-lipped on leaked plan
It was quite the opposite.
A US Pentagon delegation was in Kiev on Thursday. They were talking about the draft plan with President Zelensky To end the war in Ukraine.
On the same day, President Putin was in military fatigues on Russian state television. He was talking to army commanders about continuing to fight.
“We have tasks, we have goals,” the Kremlin leader said. “The most important thing is that the objectives of the special military operation are achieved unconditionally.”
Izvestia newspaper described President Putin’s visit to the command center as “a signal to America that Russia is ready to negotiate on Ukraine on its terms.”
This brings us back to the peace plan.
Kremlin claims “He did not receive anything official” from Washington. However, the 28-point proposal was widely leaked, reported, and interpreted as Russia supporting the peace terms.
Moreover, the reported plan emerged after the visit of President Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev to the United States. Participated in three days of talks in Miami with President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
According to widely available drafts of the peace proposal, Ukraine would cede parts of Donbass still under Kiev’s control to Russia; Ukrainian armed forces will be downsized and Ukraine will vow not to join NATO.
The Kremlin would not confirm the contents. However, he advises Kiev to accept the terms.
“The effective work of the Russian military should convince Zelensky and his regime that it is better to reach an agreement and do it now,” President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a Kremlin conference call.
A peace offering does not automatically mean peace.
What if there is no deal?
Pro-Kremlin commentators insist Russia will prevail with or without a deal.
“Everyone thought the idea of a peace agreement was sinking into a quagmire,” wrote the Russian news outlet Moskovsky Komsomolets. “But suddenly, a rocket burst out of this swamp with a new, or rather ‘old new’, peace plan that resembled the Alaska summit. It took off like a jack in the box.”
“How long and how far will this missile fly? Will it fall under the sabotage of Europe and Kiev? Even if the launch is a false start, it is unlikely to change the general trend. The balance of power is shifting in favor of Russia.”
But after nearly four years of war, Russia is also under pressure. Since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army has not only suffered huge losses on the battlefield, but the country’s economy is also reeling. Russia’s budget deficit is increasing, revenues from oil and gas are falling.
“Russia’s industry is somewhere between stagnation and decline,” Nezavisimaya Gazeta declared this week.
But it is unclear whether economic pressures will change President Putin’s calculations and convince him that it is time to end his so-called special operation, even on terms that many believe are in Moscow’s best interest.
A lot. But not everyone.
Some elements of the peace plan were not well received in Russia. Some reports suggest Ukraine could be given security guarantees modeled on About NATO Article 5. This could lead Western allies to consider any future Russian attack on Ukraine as an attack on the transatlantic community as a whole, triggering a joint military response.
“In fact, this is Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO,” Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote, “only without the deployment of bases and weapons on its territory.”
Full details of the peace plan have not yet been confirmed. We may be entering another period of intense diplomacy.
But for now Russia The war against Ukraine continues.
