Russian President Vladimir Putin used his annual Direct Line televised press conference on December 19 to reaffirm his commitment to achieving his full war aims in Ukraine.
Putin stated that Russia is ready and willing to end the war based on the principles he outlined during his June 2024 speech to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
[1] Putin used that speech to lay out his conditions to agree to a ceasefire and only then start negotiations: Ukraine’s complete withdrawal from all of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts and Ukraine’s abandonment of its NATO membership aspirations.
[2] Putin stated in this 2024 speech that Russia’s “fundamental” position calls for Ukraine’s neutral status, demilitarization (the Russian demand for limits on the Ukrainian military such that Ukraine cannot defend itself), and denazification (the Russian demand for the replacement of the current Ukrainian government with a pro-Russian puppet government). Putin had also demanded that the international community enshrine its recognition of Russia’s annexation of the four oblasts and Crimea in international agreements and that the West lift all sanctions against Russia. Many of Putin’s June 2024 demands, which Putin reiterated on December 19, directly contradict the US-proposed 28-point peace plan and its subsequent iterations. The 28-point plan, for example, called for freezing the war along the current frontlines in Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts and for the United States to recognize Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts and Crimea as Russian territory de facto rather than de jure.
[3] That plan did not require other states, including Ukraine, to recognize the occupied regions as Russian territory de jure. Putin’s statements continue to make clear that he will not be satisfied with a peace agreement along the lines of those based on the 28-point proposal currently under discussion. Putin may make temporary compromises, as he claimed during his Direct Line speech he did during the August 2025 US-Russian Alaska summit, but his unwavering commitment to his original, maximalist war aims shows that he will not be satisfied with such an agreement and will continue to pursue his full goals even after he signs an agreement. Any peace agreement must therefore ensure a strong Ukraine with robust security guarantees in order to establish a lasting and sustainable peace and prevent renewed Russian aggression. The Kremlin has publicly and explicitly rejected such security guarantees multiple times, however.[4]...
https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-december-19-2025/ |
