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- Russia's war in Ukraine has lasted longer than President Vladimir Putin anticipated.
- Putin has considered a cease-fire since the early weeks of Russia's invasion, NYT reported.
- He renewed that interest but only under the condition that Russia could maintain seized territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin privately said he's open to peace talks with Ukraine multiple times since the early weeks of the invasion, The New York Times reported. But some Western officials told the Times that they remain skeptical.
One of the earliest instances came weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, which was quickly seen as a botched military campaign as Ukrainian resistance proved to be more resilient than anticipated, the Times reported. But talks of a cease-fire fell through after Russia's brutal acts against civilians and soldiers in Ukraine, according to the report.
In the fall of 2022, Putin explored peace talks again after Russian forces retreated from Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region in September, US officials told the Times. However, top US officials said it was too soon for talks, and the cease-fire was under the condition that Russia could keep the nearly 20% of Ukrainian territory that has been occupied.
More recently, Putin has shown renewed interest in a cease-fire as the war approaches its two-year mark, and significant progress on the front line — on either side — remains to be seen.
Two former senior Russian officials close to the Kremlin, along with US and international officials who have received the message about Putin's interest in peace talks, told the Times that the Russian leader has signaled that interest since at least September with the same conditions outlined last year in the fall.
"He really is willing to stop at the current positions," one of the former Russian officials told the Times. "He's not willing to retreat one meter."
US officials also told the newspaper that the armistice would keep Ukraine as a sovereign country, along with Kyiv as its capital, while Russia maintains control of the occupied territory.
But it's unclear if Ukraine would accept a cease-fire under such conditions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly vowed to reclaim all territory seized by Russia, and top US officials told the Times that they don't see any influential Ukrainian politician agreeing to those terms.
But US and Western officials remain dubious.
"They never honored any agreements," Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics told the Times, "and they have violated them immediately when they saw it was convenient."
Putin's quiet interest in peace talks through back-channel communications markedly opposes the message the Russian leader sends to the public.
On December 14, in his first news conference that allowed attendance from Western media since the February invasion, Putin said that Russia's goals remain the same and that there would be no cease-fire until they're achieved.
"There will be peace when we will achieve our goals," Putin said, according to The Associated Press. "Victory will be ours."