Russia Stands Firm, Ukraine Scrambles for More Support /Larry Johnson & Lt Col Daniel Davis

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Russia is holding firm on its long-standing negotiating positions regarding the Ukraine war, which have remained consistent since at least 2021. In contrast, Europe opposes negotiations and favors continuing the war, while the Trump camp’s stance appears to shift.

Recent Moscow discussions involving Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were not actual peace negotiations but rather a message-delivery meeting to make clear to Donald Trump that Russia’s core demands are non-negotiable. Notably, Ukraine and Europe were not included, underscoring that Moscow views them as irrelevant until Ukraine elects what Russia considers a legitimate government.

Russia’s non-negotiable demands—repeated publicly by Putin—include:

Permanent Russian control over Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia

A legally elected Ukrainian government (neither Zelensky nor Zaluzhny qualifies in their view)

No NATO presence in Ukraine

Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and “denazification”

Full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the regions Russia now claims

Russia insists these are existential security issues and not opening positions from which it will compromise. Putin has also stated that if these terms are rejected, future terms will be even harsher.

The current talks are therefore not the “beginning of the end” of the war but the “end of the beginning”—a preparatory phase setting the framework for how true negotiations might later occur if Ukraine meets Russia’s preconditions.