President Putin Calls Peace Agreement With Ukraine Must Guarantee Russia's Security

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Source: Alexander Demianchuk / TASS)

JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia would seek a peace deal in Ukraine that provides long-term security guarantees.

"We must choose for ourselves the appropriate peace options for us and which will guarantee peace for our country in the long term," President Putin told a group of Russian women who have lost loved ones to war in Ukraine who have entered their third year.

When asked by the mother of one of the soldiers who died whether Russia would resign, President Putin said he did not intend to do that.

It is known that Russia currently controls less than a fifth of Ukraine's territory or about 113,000 square km.

United States President Donald Trump has changed Western policies regarding Ukraine's war, opened bilateral negotiations with Moscow and stopped military aid to Kyiv after clashing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last week.

Reuters reported in November that President Putin was open to discussing Ukraine's peace deal with President Trump but ruled out any major territorial concessions and would insist Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

In a summer comment setting its terms to end the war, President Putin also said Ukraine should withdraw all its troops from the entire territory of the four Ukrainian territories claimed and partly controlled by Russia.

The dramatic change in US policy towards Ukraine by President Trump has raised hopes for peace negotiations, but has also alarmed Washington's allies in Europe who this week have reaffirmed their support for Kyiv.

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron angered Moscow, when he said in a speech Russia was a threat to Europe.

President Macron said Paris could discuss expanding its nuclear umbrella to allies and he would hold a meeting with military chiefs from European countries willing to send peacekeeping forces to Ukraine after any peace agreement.

Russia mocked Macron, calling him "Micron". The Russian cartoon describes him as French Emperor Napoleon who headed for defeat in Russia in 1812.

"There are still people who want to return to Napoleon's time, they forget how it ended," President Putin said on Thursday, without naming President Macron.

"All the mistakes of our enemies and opponents started with this: underestimating the character of the Russians and the general Russian cultural representatives," added President Putin.