Posted on 04/15/2025 6:09:59 AM PDT by McGruff
President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said his high-stakes talks with Vladimir Putin were “compelling” — and insisted the Russian leader was open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine.
Witkoff sat down with Putin in St. Petersburg last Friday amid the Trump administration’s efforts to spearhead a deal to end the three-year war.
“I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large,” Witkoff told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday, adding “it took a while for us to get to this place.”
Asked if a Putin-Trump meeting was inching nearer, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television the two powers were “walking along this path together very patiently” but that trying to restore relations took serious and painstaking work.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Forget permanent. All we need is a ceasefire that’s long enough for America to pull out of that mess entirely.
Preferably all the way bask across the Atlantic.
I hope this is right, but I also remember high level officials saying things like this over and over and over in prior administrations over lots of different conflicts. How many times was the Iraq insurrection or ISIS about to be wiped out based administration press statements? Trump Administration officials should not say something like this until there actually is a ceasefire or peace.
Won’t the democrats be disappointed...
I have my doubts that this will be a permanent peace agreement. Too many others willing to sabotage it.
If Putin and Xi have any brains they are collaborating against America and Donald Trump.
Putin wearing down DJT via no ceasefire in Ukraine. To keep pushing his war forward.
Xi wearing down DJT on tariffs and trying to tank the US dollar as The Premier reserve currency.
Iran can play a part too. As yet undetermined.
Then why did Putin just draft 160,000 new soldiers? I would say both sides are determined to fight on.
These are Putin’s set in stone requirements to end the war. Do it now before Putin goes to Istanbul Plus Plus and the Ukes lose Odessa too.
In June 2024, Vladimir Putin outlined conditions for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which some, including analyst Alexander Mercouris, have referred to as “Istanbul Plus” due to its resemblance to earlier negotiations in Istanbul in 2022, with additional demands. Based on available information, Putin’s stated requirements included:
- Territorial Concessions: Ukraine must withdraw its forces from and cede control of the four regions Russia claimed to have annexed in 2022—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia (within their administrative borders, including areas not fully under Russian control). Russia would also retain Crimea, annexed in 2014.
- Neutrality: Ukraine must formally abandon its aspirations to join NATO, committing to a neutral, non-aligned status.
- Demilitarization: Limits on the size and capability of Ukraine’s armed forces, though specific details on the extent were not publicly detailed in June 2024 statements.
- Lifting Sanctions: All Western sanctions imposed on Russia must be removed as a precondition for a ceasefire.
- Recognition of Annexations: The international community must recognize Russia’s annexation of the aforementioned territories.
These terms were framed as a ceasefire proposal, with Putin stating that Russia would halt hostilities immediately if Ukraine agreed to these conditions and began withdrawing troops from the specified regions. However, Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dismissed the proposal as a demand for capitulation, arguing it would legitimize Russia’s territorial gains and undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty. Western leaders, such as NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg, also criticized it as an attempt to achieve Russia’s war aims through coercion rather than negotiation.
Mercouris, in his commentary, suggests “Istanbul Plus” reflects a hardening of Russia’s position compared to the 2022 Istanbul talks, where neutrality and demilitarization were discussed but territorial demands were less expansive. The “Plus” refers to the inclusion of the four regions and broader geopolitical demands, like lifting sanctions, which were not as prominent in earlier negotiations. However, there’s debate over the feasibility and sincerity of these terms, with some sources noting they were seen as maximalist and unlikely to be accepted by Ukraine or the West.
The requirements reflect Russia’s strategic goals but were broadly rejected, indicating no immediate path to peace based on these terms. If you’d like, I can dig deeper into Mercouris’s specific framing or cross-check for any updates on these demands.
It’s Europe. There are no permanent peaces.
There is no such thing as permanent peace.
A ceasefire, yes. A peace agreement firming up new borders, yes. But some day they will both be back at it again, maybe not with each other, but there will be more wars. It’s human nature. No one can stop it.
The statement made after WWI was similar to “The War That Ended All Wars”. Anyone with half a brain knew better. The fact was, all WWI did was set the stage for the next world war.
Only weak minded leftists believe a peace can be permanent.
Russians are volunteering at a rate of 30,000 a month.
- Replacing the elected government with an imposed pro-Russian one.
- Suppression of Ukrainian nationalist sentiment.
- Elevation of Russian language, history, and culture to equal status as that as Ukrainian.
All together this would be the end of Ukraine as an independent nation and as separate people.
Do it now before Putin goes to Istanbul Plus Plus and the Ukes lose Odessa too.
The Russians could not hold on to Kherson and have been fighting for over a year to take Pokrovsk. The Ukrainians may not be able to retake their lost territory but Russia is not going to take Odessa.
Witkoff is naïve and that’s being nice.
You could not be more wrong about Witkoff. He’s great. Along with negotiating an end to the Uke CF, he’ll do the same with Iran. The morons who’ve bought the PU narrative the last three years are criminally stupid.
Putin is stalling and not going to agree to a ceasefire yet.
Yes, that is a good take by Alexander M. Putin IS negotiating, just not the way Ukraine/NATO/USA wants him to negotiate.
The lessons of history are not being implemented.
No one should ever deal with terrorists. Putin is a terrorist and the only deal he’ll ever accept is one where the U.S. and Europe get the hell out of Ukraine completely and leave Ukraine defenseless for Russia to take.
Putin smells victory with every ‘peace deal’ he can get out of the U.S./NATO/Ukraine alliance. Peace to Putin is only possible when he gets his total victory.
I’m sorry, but Putin is no terrorist. That tag comes from the likes of all the Deep State assholes we all know and love that have all but wiped Christianity out across the West and murdered us across N Africa and the ME.
THAT is the war we are in.
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