OR Russia indicated that it is ready to discuss a possible cease-fire in Ukraine with US President-elect Donald Trump, at a time when the conflict is intensifying with the warring sides seeking to strengthen their negotiating papers before any talks, as noted by the Bloomberg agency in its analysis.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s remarks were met with immediate skepticism by Western officials as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine passed its 1,000th day, with Moscow’s forces making fresh gains in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian president Vladimir Putin has “more than once, or more precisely, repeatedly, declared that he is ready for contacts and negotiations”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

Peskov’s statements were a response to Reuters report that Moscow might be open to negotiating a ceasefire roughly along the current battle lines. The report cited five unidentified current and former Russian officials.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have stepped up their bombing of Ukraine in recent days, while Putin yesterday approved the updated nuclear doctrine, which expands the conditions allowing for a possible nuclear response. The US and several European nations on Wednesday closed their embassies in Kiev in anticipation of a potentially major airstrike, as a missile alert was sounded in many areas, including the capital. In the end, however, Kiev said that Russia had organized “a massive informational-psychological attack” against Ukraine by spreading a false warning, allegedly from Ukrainian military intelligence, of an imminent massive airstrike.

“Putin is not ready for serious talks or concessions”

Several officials from NATO countries said their assessment remains that Putin is not ready for serious talks or concessions. Russia’s goal remains to extend its gains on Ukrainian soil and drive Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region, where they hold ground after an invasion earlier this year, before any potential deal, two people close to the Kremlin told Bloomberg. .

“Whatever Putin says, he does not want peace and is not ready to negotiate it”French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters en route to the G20 summit in Brazil. “Putin’s intention is to escalate the war, we’ve been seeing this for weeks.”

The four territories that Russia has annexed

Reuters reported earlier that Putin may agree to discuss the separation of four regions in Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – which Russia declared illegally annexed in 2022 but does not fully control. The Russian president has said they are “forever” part of Russia, although only about 77 percent of the four regions are under Kremlin control, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Russia may also be ready to withdraw its forces from small territories it holds in the Kharkiv and Mykolayiv regions, according to two of the officials cited by Reuters.

“Putin has not made any final decision” about his approach to peace talks, said Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser. “He would prefer not to pay the high price of continued aggression, but he is even less willing to pay such a high price for a peace deal that is not in Russia’s interests.”

With Trump taking office in two months, both sides are trying to set the parameters for a difficult negotiation.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky declared on Tuesday that his country would not make any concessions on sovereignty or territorial issues. Zelensky’s peace proposal is based on obtaining a clear path to NATO membership and security guarantees for protection until it joins.

Trump has promised to end the war quickly, without detailing how he might do that. His return to the White House also raises the prospect of a sharp cut in US aid to Ukraine. He could also threaten to step up support for Kiev to try to pressure Russia into a deal. Officials in Kiev and Moscow are assessing the potential changes coming to the American political scene.

Putin has previously said he remains open to talks, but any deal must take into account Russia’s security interests and “realities” on the front lines. In June, he demanded that Ukraine fully withdraw from the four territories that Russia has unilaterally claimed as its own and abandon its NATO ambitions before a ceasefire takes effect.

Position of power

Putin is still insisting on abandoning Ukraine’s NATO ambitions and banning the presence of the alliance’s troops on Ukrainian soil, but is ready to discuss security guarantees for the neighboring state, according to a Reuters report.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles inside Russia could complicate and delay any settlement, two of the Reuters sources said. It is also noted that Ukraine carried out its first attack with ATACMS missiles in Russia yesterday, hitting an arsenal in the Bryansk region.

Still, the US authorization to use the missiles allows Ukraine to talk to Russia from a position of strength, Ukraine’s ambassador to the European Union Vsevolod Chentsov told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

The change in the US administration’s stance is partly due to North Korea’s decision to send more than 10,000 troops to Kursk as part of strengthening its alliance with Moscow.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking the worst hostilities in Europe since World War II and the most dangerous confrontation with the West in decades. The US and its allies have poured tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid into Ukraine, but Kiev has been steadily losing ground in the east in recent months.

On Tuesday, Putin signed decree which expands the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons, just days after Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to carry out deep strikes with US-made missiles. Under the updated nuclear doctrine, Russia would consider a nuclear strike if it or its ally Belarus were faced with an attack “using conventional weapons that would pose a critical threat to their sovereignty and/or territorial integrity”the new doctrine states. “An attack against the Russian Federation and/or its allies by any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered a joint attack”characteristically mentions the updated doctrine signed by the Russian president. “An attack by any state from a military coalition against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies is considered an attack by the coalition as a whole,” is emphasized in the relevant document signed by the Russian president.

Russia and the US together control 88% of the world’s nuclear warheads and Putin is the main decision-maker on the use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.