And why wouldn’t Russia hold fast to its demands? Russia is winning—more than ever. In fact, already back in mid-May The Atlantic was describing Putin’s public “swagger.” So here’s where the demands stand (excerpt from a longer article, linked above):
Russia’s position
In a memorandum presented at talks in Istanbul in June, Russia offered Ukraine two options for establishing a 30-day ceasefire. One demanded Ukraine withdraw its forces from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — the four regions Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured.
As an alternate condition for a ceasefire, Russia made a “package proposal” for Ukraine to halt mobilization efforts, freeze Western arms deliveries and ban any third-country forces on its soil. Moscow also suggested Ukraine end martial law and hold elections, after which the countries could sign a comprehensive peace treaty.
Once there’s a truce, Moscow wants a deal to include the “international legal recognition” of its annexations of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and the four regions in 2022.
Russia says a peace treaty should have Ukraine declare its neutral status between Russia and the West, abandon its bid to join NATO, limit the size of its armed forces and recognize Russian as an official language on par with Ukrainian -– conditions reflecting Putin’s earliest goals.
It also demands Ukraine ban the “glorification and propaganda of Nazism and neo-Nazism” and dissolve nationalist groups. Since the war began, Putin has falsely alleged that neo-Nazi groups were shaping Ukrainian politics under Zelenskyy, who is Jewish. They were fiercely dismissed by Kyiv and its Western allies.
In Russia’s view, a comprehensive peace treaty should see both countries lift all sanctions and restrictions, abandon any claims to compensation for wartime damage, resume trade and communications, and reestablish diplomatic ties.
Asked Thursday whether Moscow has signaled any willingness to compromise to make a meeting with Trump possible, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov responded that there haven’t been any shifts in the Russian position.
FWIW, today Zelensky is publicly rejecting Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine might have to surrender some territory. Well, I can understand his position. After all, the US promised him a total victory if he would stiff Russia at the first Istanbul conference—as long as it takes! Remember that? Sometimes life’s a bitch, and Trump’s finding that out—again. He’s a bit of a slow learner, as evidenced by the way he continues to hold to his view that one should never hire people that are smarter than you are. But, if that’s the case, why does Trump listen to the knuckleheads he hires?
For example, arguably it was listening to his clown military adviser, Kellogg, that got Trump into the position he finds himself in now. Remember? It was Kellogg who floated the genius idea of parading our nuke subs up and down the Russian coastline to find out whether Putin was “bluffing”. You can bet that Kellogg is the moron behind most of the escalations against Russia during Trump 2.0, including Trump’s clownish claim to redeploy Ohio class subs in his foolish spat with Medvedev. More recently, Kellogg has been claiming that the sanctions war against Russia had never really been prosecuted, and it was now the time to really hammer Russia:
The guy’s a complete idiot, but Trump listened to him and threatened BRICS with world destroying sanctions. The collective BRICS response? ‘Hold my beer.’ On top of that, the missile posturing Trump had adopted earned him a major pushback when the Russians announced they’d place Oreshnik missiles in Belarus—the Belarus border is about 160 miles from Warsaw. All of a sudden Trump—the guy who earlier claimed he was ‘running the world and having a good time doing it’—was looking like a chump. So off went Witkoff to Moscow to beg for a summit.
Will Trump be the one giving away the store to Putin? That would make sense, so I tend to doubt it. I argued yesterday at considerable length that Trump is following out consistent US policy against Russia since forever, and that the Anglo-Zionist policy would never change (the rhetoric against the meeting is starting to heat up, coming from the usual suspects). Brian Berletic expresses that bottom line well today:
Nothing has changed fundamentally within the US power structure to change the overall objectives of US special interests in regards to pursuing primacy worldwide, thus, no fundamental change in US foreign policy has taken place;
The US geopolitical priority is the pursuit of unipolar hegemony through a division of labor and strategic sequencing, wanting a ceasefire to allow European forces to position themselves inside Ukraine allowing the US to pivot the center of global conflict to Middle East, Asia-Pacific;
Well, ain’t gonna be no European forces positioning themselves inside Ukraine. What European forces? But you get the general idea. Don’t expect Trump to change that stance. Instead, expect him to come away disappointed, because Putin is very unlikely to give Trump extra leeway to pivot further toward Russia’s partners in Iran and/or China. You can bet that Putin coordinating with those partners before heading for Alaska.
All of which makes for an interesting question: Why is Trump doing this? It seems to be desperation—nothing ventured, nothing gained. Remember, it wasn’t very long ago that we were hearing this from Trump:
“We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
So he wants more of the BS thrown at him? Or maybe it’s Putin’s monologues on Russian history and grievances that Trump can’t get enough of—even though the reports are that Trump has little or no time for intel briefings. If you search “trump tired of putin monologues” you’ll get reams of articles about how Trump - Putin phone calls go on for hours because of Putin’s “monologues.” And guess what? Most of those monologues boil down to the Russian positions outlined above. This time Trump will get that face to face. Which, once again, suggests desperation, given that Trump almost certainly has no genuine interest in any of the information Putin has on offer for him.
So, tailor your expectations accordingly. The Russians are reporting a major breakthrough near Pokrovsk today. You’ll be hearing lots more news like that in the coming months. That’s my guess.
"Vance said a likely settlement would take as a starting point the “current line of contact between Russia and Ukraine,” suggesting the belligerents could halt the fighting and retain most of the territory that they control militarily."
Please note. Absolutely no talk of peace. Only of a ceasefire.
See? In his dreams:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/vp-vance-america-done-funding-the-ukraine-war/
"Vance said a likely settlement would take as a starting point the “current line of contact between Russia and Ukraine,” suggesting the belligerents could halt the fighting and retain most of the territory that they control militarily."
Please note. Absolutely no talk of peace. Only of a ceasefire.
"falsely alleged that neo-Nazi groups "
AP lies about absolutely everything.
Putin shouldn't trust meeting western leaders after Israel murdered the Iranian negotiation team. He should wear a bomb vest with a dead hand switch.