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Yesterday, Ukraine did a complete about face and announced it was on board with the Trump administration’s peace plan, starting with a 30-day ceasefire. That announcement basically dumped the question in Putin’s lap. And that’s a problem because even pretty recently, Putin has been portraying himself as the strongman who will never give in.
Only last week, Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin strongman who launched this brutal war three years ago, vowed to a group of tearful widows and mothers of killed Russian soldiers, that Moscow would never “give in.”
Most Russians, fatigued by the conflict and anxious about its dire economic impact, may be keen to see the fight end, which could result in biting sanctions being eased. But pro-war Russian hardliners, at times encouraged by the Kremlin, will see any early ceasefire as a betrayal.
But a climbdown of some sort may be inevitable.
Privately, Moscow hardliners are saying Russia needs to demand all sorts of things. A document prepared last month by a Moscow think-tank connected to the FSB was picked up by a European intelligence agency.
It dismisses President Donald Trump’s preliminary plans for a peace deal within 100 days as “impossible to realize” and says that “a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis cannot happen before 2026.
