Extensive demandsISW: The Kremlin appears to be preparing Russia for “complete victory”.
The US 28-point plan sometimes looks as if it was written in Russian ink. Enthusiasm among politicians and media in Russia sounds somewhat muted. Apparently they wanted more.
Russian politicians and state media insist on far-reaching demands in the Ukraine war. Even the Kremlin-friendly 28-point plan presented by the US will lag behind this. First Deputy Chairman of the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Alexei Chepa, wrote on Telegram that any peace plan must meet Russia’s full demands: “Russia’s task is to eliminate the causes of the Ukrainian conflict organized by the West.”
According to Chepa, Russia was forced to start a “special operation”: “We are talking about the protection of the Russian world in Ukraine, about the denazification of Ukraine, about the demobilization of Ukrainian troops. We are also talking about NATO. Therefore, it is very clear that this plan must meet the requirements that we have formulated.” And further: “The extent to which this satisfies us and the extent to which it represents a long-term solution must of course be examined more closely.”
According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russia’s state broadcaster and military bloggers also stated something similar: Russia will only agree to a peace plan that eliminates the “causes” of war – which, according to the institute, implies that Moscow is not interested in serious peace negotiations until its goals on the battlefield are achieved. According to ISW, “cause” of war is “a deliberately vague term that the Kremlin has long used to justify the war and its maximum demands, such as the destruction of Ukraine’s sovereignty and the NATO alliance.”
Andrej Kolesnik’s statement from the Duma Defense Committee also made it clear that the Kremlin does not want to make any territorial concessions. Russia will not cede any territory, even areas like Zaporizhzhia, Kolesnik told the Russian portal “News”. Russia does not fully control the region. The politician stressed that the advance of Russian troops continues with confidence. Kolesnik previously stated that the Russian side was ready to negotiate, but was waiting for countermeasures from Kiev. He then threatened Ukraine: “further escalation of the conflict” would endanger Ukrainian statehood itself.
Threats to Kyiv
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had made a similar threat on Friday: “The effective work of the Russian armed forces should convince Zelensky: It is better to negotiate now and not later,” Peskov said. “The space for him to take decisions freely is shrinking, because his territory is being lost due to attacks by the Russian army,” Peskov said. Duma deputy and head of Russia’s nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, also called Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine a “convincing argument” – which, according to ISW, means that Russia remains determined to continue its war in Ukraine on the battlefield.
ISW also stated: “Russian officials and state media continue to create information conditions to reject the 28-point US proposed peace plan, indicating that the Kremlin is actively preparing the Russian people to accept complete victory in Ukraine.” However, the think tank countered: “But ISW continues to assume that a Russian victory is inevitable and that Ukraine and Western countries can exploit some of Russia’s key weaknesses to force the Kremlin to negotiate and make real concessions.”
