It is becoming increasingly clear that Russian President Putin is using every trick in his arsenal to avoid a peace deal with Ukraine that he has no intention of signing. Despite US President Donald Trump’s claim that talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are “95 percent complete,” Moscow is responding not with seriousness but with farce.
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The other day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Ukraine had attacked Putin’s residence with 91 drones. However, this figure contradicts the statement of the Russian Defense Ministry, which on the same night spoke of only 89 drones throughout the country. As military expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon notes in The Telegraph, such a discrepancy looks particularly awkward and is another example of the Kremlin’s disinformation, the purpose of which is to disrupt the negotiations.
The publication recalls Trump's words that a key element of the almost ready peace plan is security guarantees for Ukraine. However, they are designed for only 15 years, while Kyiv seeks at least half a century. There is also discussion of the possible deployment of NATO troops on Ukrainian territory, which for Moscow would mean Ukraine's hidden membership in the Alliance – a “red line” that Putin considers unbreakable.
According to the expert, the idea of turning Donbas into a demilitarized economic zone is no less controversial. For the Kremlin, this is as unacceptable as turning Gaza into a resort for the Palestinians.
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Amid these maneuvers, Russia's military situation is deteriorating. According to BBC analysts, over the past ten months, Russian army casualties have increased faster than at any other time since the beginning of the invasion in 2022. Total losses have exceeded 1.5 million people and are increasing by about a thousand every day – a pace that even an autocratic system is unlikely to sustain for long.
Expert de Bretton-Gordon believes that Putin is just as uninterested in peace today as he was on the morning of February 24, 2022. The alleged drone attack on his residence is a fabrication and a convenient excuse to disrupt an agreement in which Ukraine has already been forced to concede more than it should have.
“The Kremlin understands only force and fears it. If this means allowing Ukraine to use Tomahawk missiles, so be it. And if a few destroyed Russian palaces help “sober up” Moscow, Trump may find that negotiating with a more subdued Putin is much easier,” the expert concluded.
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Previously, “FACTS” quoted President Zelenskyy as saying that Putin does not plan to conclude a peace agreement, but is only playing at peace to avoid sanctions.