Putin rejects proposed US peace plan by president-elect’s team – ISW

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) indicate that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has rejected a proposal for a possible peace plan being developed by the team of newly elected US President Donald Trump.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that.

Experts note that Putin directly rejected the proposal considered by the Trump team to postpone Ukraine's membership in NATO for at least ten years as a condition for ending the war in Ukraine.

The review indicates that the head of the Kremlin responded on December 26 to a journalist's request to comment on the proposal of the Trump team to postpone Ukraine's membership in NATO for 10-20 years.

Putin stated that it does not matter whether Ukraine joins NATO "today, tomorrow or in 10 years".

"Putin's December 26 statement is part of a series of comments he has made recently reiterating his refusal to consider compromises on his late 2021 and early 2022 demands.

These demands include forcing Ukraine to become a permanently neutral state that will never join NATO, imposing severe limitations on the size of the Ukrainian military, and removing the Ukrainian government," the ISW report said.

ISW key findings for December 26:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin explicitly rejected a suggestion reportedly considered by US President-elect Donald Trump's team in early November 2024 that would delay Ukraine's membership in NATO for at least a decade as a condition for ending the war in Ukraine.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Putin's false claims that the current Ukrainian government is illegitimate and cannot be a legitimate negotiating partner for Russia.
• Russian forces have likely seized Kurakhove following two months of intensified offensive operations aimed at seizing the settlement and eliminating the Ukrainian salient north and south of the settlement.
• Russian forces may struggle to advance rapidly further west of Kurakhove along the H-15 Kurakhove-Pokrovske highway should Ukrainian forces choose to defend in the Kurakhivska TPP and Russian forces fail to outflank Ukrainian positions in the TPP near Dachne or Ulakly.
• Elements of the 51st CAA have been the main forces participating in the seizure of Kurakhove amid ongoing efforts to centralize and formalize elements of the 51st CAA within the Russian military.
• Russian forces conducted an extensive series of missile and drone strikes targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure on the night of December 24 to 25, seriously damaging thermal power plants (TPPs).
• Ukrainian forces conducted a successful strike on December 25 against the command post of a Russian unit operating in the Kursk region.
• Ukrainian forces struck a Russian ammunition depot in the Rostov region and Russian defense industrial base (DIB) facilities in Rostov and Tambov regions on December 25 and 26.
• A Russian air defense system reportedly shot an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 passenger aircraft over the Republic of Chechnya on December 25, after which the plane crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan.
• A Russian insider source, who is reportedly affiliated with Russian law enforcement, claimed that an air defense missile likely struck the plane at an altitude of 2,400 meters, approximately 18 kilometers northwest of the Grozny airport over Naursky Raion.
• Japan will provide Ukraine with $3 billion in non-lethal assistance generated solely from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Toretsk, and Russian troops recently advanced near Kupiansk, Toretsk, Pokrovsk, and Velyka Novosilka.
• Russian military bloggers acknowledged that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is attempting to monopolize crowdfunding efforts for the Russian military amid the ongoing fallout from the deaths of two Russian drone operators in September 2024.

Earlier, on December 26, the dictator of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, answering questions about the prospects for ending the war in Ukraine in 2025, stated that he "aims" to end it but is still going to achieve his "goals."