Russia rejects compromise and ceasefire talks – ISW

Moscow rejects the possibility of any concessions in the upcoming peace talks on the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin said it would not compromise, denied the possibility of deploying peacekeepers in Ukraine, and rejected the possibility of a negotiated ceasefire.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports this.

During a visit to the Moscow branch of the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation on March 6, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia "will not give in" and intends to achieve such peace conditions that will provide it with long-term guarantees.

"Putin has also declared 2025 the "Year of the Defender of the Fatherland" — underlining Putin's efforts to prioritize militarizing Russian society and rallying support behind Russia's war effort in Ukraine in 2025.

Putin stated that Russia "will not give up" its "own" territory in future peace negotiations — likely referring to illegally annexed territory in occupied Ukraine," the ISW report says.

During a press conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow would not consider any initiatives to deploy European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. According to him, such actions would be equated with the deployment of NATO forces, and therefore Russia would consider them to be the Alliance's direct participation in the war.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also stressed that the Kremlin is indifferent to any proposals that could give Ukraine a "respite" on the front.

In addition, Lavrov stressed that Russia would insist on considering the so-called "root causes" of the war, among which he named the cessation of NATO expansion and security guarantees for the Russian Federation.

Lavrov also stated that any peace agreement must take into account the so-called "root causes" of the war in Ukraine, including guarantees that NATO will stop expanding in an attempt to "absorb" Ukraine and pose threats to Russia.

He claimed that US President Donald Trump "understands" the need to eliminate these "root causes", while European countries are trying to ignore them.

"Russian officials often invoke the concept of "root causes" to allude to their demands for NATO to abandon its open-door policy and to blame the West and Ukraine for Putin's decision to invade Ukraine," ISW experts note.

ISW key findings:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials explicitly rejected making any concessions in future peace negotiations or accepting any US, European, or Ukrainian peace proposals. On March 6, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) rejected the possibility of a negotiated ceasefire.
• Russian officials will likely take advantage of the suspension of US military aid to and intelligence sharing with Ukraine to spread a longstanding Russian information operation meant to portray Russian victory as inevitable falsely.
• The Kremlin welcomed a Trump administration official's recent comments mischaracterizing Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as a "proxy war," and Russian media portrayed the statement as an admission that the United States is a participant in the war.
• US and Ukrainian delegations will conduct bilateral meetings in Saudi Arabia next week.
• Ukrainian opposition politicians rejected the possibility of holding elections in Ukraine before the end of the war.
• European countries continue to announce new military assistance packages and other measures to support the Ukrainian military.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Pokrovsk direction and Russian forces recently advanced in the Kupiansk, Borova, Siversk, Pokrovsk, and Kurakhove directions.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted to assuage Russian fears about conscripts going to war amid continued reports that Russian military units are forcing conscripts to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).