Putin goes on to say
”Our proposal is not to freeze the conflict, like how the west wants it, but to end it. I repeat, this is not to freeze the conflict, but for its final completion.”
Putin goes on to say
”Our proposal is not to freeze the conflict, like how the west wants it, but to end it. I repeat, this is not to freeze the conflict, but for its final completion.”
my vibes-based reading:
this is in response to the peace conference (the one russia isn’t invited to lol), not any major shifts on the battlefield or in the geopolitical situation
the target audience is the ukrainian public, not the ukrainian/western leadership
the russian government knows there’s no chance ukraine is willing (or able) to accept this ceasefire proposal. that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not prepared to follow through should ukraine agree, but the extremely generous terms they’re presenting here are probably based on the assumption that ukraine will immediately reject it.
when ukraine is eventually forced to the negotiation table, the russian proposal will be far less generous.