‘A Stable Result That Suits Russia’ – Putin Still Uninterested in Peace, ISW Says

Russian leader Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials “have not abandoned their original war aims in Ukraine and continue to invoke their goals of ‘denazifying’ and ‘demilitarizing’ Ukraine and banning Ukraine’s ability to join any security blocs in the future, despite Russia’s failure to defeat Ukraine militarily over the last three years,” analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote this week.

Despite recent phone calls with US President Donald Trump, the Russian dictator’s recent statements appear to reject the possibility of a peace agreement with Ukraine and illustrate an appetite to protract the war.

“Putin continues to signal to the Russian military and society that he will not end the war until Ukraine capitulates completely and that he has no interest in a negotiated peace agreement that requires Russia to compromise its long-standing war aims, despite Putin’s efforts to signal interest in peace negotiations to Western leaders,” the analysts wrote.

Kremlin officials formally rejected the possibility of a ceasefire on any terms other than the complete capitulation of Ukraine and the West on Feb. 24.

Also, Putin appeared baffled by Trump’s comments that the Kremlin somehow “has no problem” with European troops guaranteeing peace in Ukraine should a ceasefire be arranged.

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Trump said at a White House press conference on Monday, sitting alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, that he had “specifically asked” Putin about European troops serving as peacekeepers and that the Russian autocrat “has no problem with it.”

When asked about Trump’s claims, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, “The Russian foreign minister has already said everything about it, I’ve got nothing to add.”

Peskov was referring to comments Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made last week following talks in Saudi Arabia with a US delegation. Lavrov said that “the deployment of troops... [from] NATO countries, but under a foreign flag, under the flag of the European Union or under national flags... is, of course, unacceptable to us.”

Lavrov claimed on Feb. 24 during a press conference in Turkey that Russia will only stop military activity in Ukraine when peace negotiations bring about a “solid, stable result that suits Russia” and account for the “realities” of the battlefield.

The foreign minister reiterated Russian demands that any peace agreement must include provisions banning Ukraine from joining NATO in the future.

Russian officials also continue to frame Russia’s demand for Ukrainian forces to withdraw from territory that Ukrainian forces currently control in eastern and southern Ukraine as a “compromise.”

The ISW report notes that recent domestic polling indicates that Russians are increasingly supportive of Russia continuing the war in Ukraine until it achieves complete Ukrainian capitulation. However, they are simultaneously starting to feel the economic toll of the three years of Russia’s war.

Ukrainian state media Ukrinform also noted that a recent poll conducted by the independent Russian opposition polling organization Chronicles between Feb. 5 and 13 showed 46% of respondents do not support the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine without Russia achieving its war goals. At the same time, 54% of respondents in February 2025 said the war had negatively affected their daily lives.