Putin Reportedly Ready To Stop War In Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (DOC PHOTO: RIA Novosti via kremlin.ru)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to stop the war in Ukraine through ceasefire negotiations acknowledging the current battlefield line.

This information was conveyed by four Russian sources to Reuters. Putin is said to be ready for war if Kyiv and Western Ukraine do not respond.

Three sources familiar with the discussions in Putin's entourage, said the Russian veteran leader had expressed his frustration at a small group of advisers regarding what he views as a Western-backed effort to hinder negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's decision to rule out negotiations.

Putin could go to war as long as necessary, Putin is also ready to make a ceasefire to freeze war, said a senior Russian source who once worked with Putin and had knowledge of high-level conversations in Syria.

In this regard, Reuters spoke to a total of five people who worked or had worked with Putin at senior levels in the world of politics and business. The fifth source did not comment on stopping the war on the front lines at this time.

When asked about a Reuters report at a press conference in Belarus on Friday, May 24, Putin said peace talks should resume.

"Let it be continued," he said, adding the negotiations should be based on states on the ground' and on plans agreed in previous attempts to reach an agreement in the first weeks of war.

"Not on the basis of the wishes of one party," he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in X the Russian leader was trying to thwart a summit of peace initiated by Ukraine in Switzerland next month using his entourage to send "false signals" about his alleged readiness to stop the war.