Peace on the horizon? Putin may offer concessions

Former President Donald Trump is set to make a comeback to the White House this January. Concurrently, there are signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is moving towards a more conciliatory approach in discussions about a ceasefire with Ukraine. Reuters has exclusively obtained detailed insights into Putin's proposed agreement.

While the broad brushstrokes of a non-negotiable ceasefire were outlined in June, stipulating that Ukraine would have to drop its ambition to join NATO and leave Russia with all its territorial gains, it has now emerged that concessions could be on the table.

Russia currently controls 110,000 sq km of Ukrainian territory while Ukraine holds about 650 sq km of Russia’s Kursk region.

The recent use of long-range missiles fired into Russian territory is unlikely to alter the direction of the war, according to The Guardian’s defense and security editor, Dan Sabbagh.

“From Ukraine’s perspective, it is better to have them than not, but ultimately, no single weapon type is decisive in a complex war like this,” he said.

With President elect Donald Trump keen to put a swift end to the conflict, five anonymous sources close to the Kremlin have leaked some clues as to how negotiations could play out.

From three of the sources, there is a suggestion that Putin might be willing to make some small compromises on how the four eastern regions of Ukraine predominantly under Russian control – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – could be carved up.

On the other hand, Crimea, which was annexed by Russia after they invaded in 2014, is not up for grabs, according to the sources.

There is also a suggestion that Russia’s small gains in the Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions, in the north and south of Ukraine, could be handed back to Ukraine.

Although Russia will not be swayed over its stance on Ukraine joining NATO, it is prepared to discuss security alternatives for Kyiv, according to Reuters sources.

Putin has “more than once, or more precisely, constantly, stated that he is ready for contacts and negotiations,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said November 20, reports Moscow’s state-run TASS news service.

Earlier this month Putin indicated that a short-term ceasefire would only serve to give Ukraine time to rearm and that any deal would have to reflect the situation on the ground.

"If there is no neutrality, it is difficult to imagine the existence of any good-neighbourly relations between Russia and Ukraine," Putin told a Moscow-based think tank, Reuters reports.

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