Russia likely to reject any version of U.S.-proposed peace plan – ISW

This is stated in an ISW report, Ukrinform saw.

“Russian information space voices continue to argue that the Kremlin will likely reject a ceasefire or any iteration of the US-proposed peace plan because the Kremlin views these efforts as inconsequential and as a hindrance to Russia’s goals in Ukraine and globally,” the report says.

According to ISW analysts, a Russian milblogger argued on November 30 that Putin has made it “clear” he is prepared to achieve Russia’s war aims via military means, making all peace negotiations since the 2022 Istanbul talks “not practical.”

The blogger claims that Russia’s participation in any peace negotiations depends “solely” on its progress on the battlefield.

At the same time, he argued that U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire do not benefit Russia, because they would force Moscow to terminate the September 2022 mobilization decree, which allows the military to retain mobilized servicemen on the battlefield indefinitely. Canceling it, he said, would reduce the size of the Russian military and deplete Russia’s officer corps.

ISW notes that Putin fears the challenges associated with reintegrating veterans into Russian society and the economy, and is therefore unlikely to conduct a full or rapid demobilization – even if the war in Ukraine were settled through negotiations.

The milblogger also argued that a ceasefire would undermine Russia’s efforts to seize illegally annexed unoccupied Ukrainian territories and would force Moscow to surrender “strategically important” offensive positions in Sumy, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

As reported by Ukrinform, ISW previously noted that Vladimir Putin and Russian media were actively spreading a false narrative about an allegedly “inevitable collapse” of the front line in Ukraine, despite the fact that this does not reflect the real situation on the battlefield.