Is Vladimir Putin ready for a high fire or play for time?

Russia is ready to stop at the fight, says Vladimir Putin, but “there are nuances.” Those nuances he presented before the conversations with those sent at the Kremlin are so key to his thinking that they could spit any hope of a high fire.

They are demands that he has had in all the large -scale invasion of Russia. And for Ukraine and its western partners. Many of them will be unacceptable or impossible to comply.

“We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,” began positively, only to add: “This cessation must be such that it would lead to long -term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis.”

No one would disagree with the need for long -term peace, but Putin’s idea of ​​the fundamental causes of war revolves around Ukraine’s desire to exist as a sovereign state, beyond the orbit of Russia.

Ukraine wants to be part of NATO and the European Union, so much, it is enshrined in the Constitution.

President Trump has already questioned the NATO membership, but Putin has repeatedly ruled out the idea of ​​Ukraine as a state.

And that supports many of the nuances he drew.

He wants to prevent Ukraine from reinforcing his army and replacing his supply of weapons, so there would be no more deliveries from the West. He wants to know who would make sure he is verified.

Since the beginning of this war, Putin has demanded the “demilitarization” of Ukraine, which is anathema for kyiv and its allies.

In essence, Putin is looking for safety guarantees in reverse.

Would Russia agree to stop or mobilize your forces? That seems unlikely and there were no indications of any concession on his part, since he addressed journalists at the Kremlin.

Putin has just returned with a bullish humor of the first line in Kursk, a Russian border region that has been partially occupied since last August by Ukraine.

Russia has the advantage in Kursk. Putin clearly feels that he is negotiating from a position of strength and does not want to lose it.

“If we stop military actions for 30 days, what does that mean? All those who are there abandon the battle?”

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced Thursday that their forces had now taken total control of the largest city than the Ukrainians had managed to seize Sudzha. Putin says that everything that the Ukrainians have remained is a wedge, so why Russia would stop now?

“If a physical blockage occurs in the next few days, no one can go at all. There will only be two options: surrender or die.”

The same was applied to the entire front line of 1,000 km (620 miles), where he said that the situation on the ground was quickly changing, with the Russian troops “moving forward in virtually all areas.”

That is not the case, since most of the front is at a dead point, even if Russia has had any recent success in the east.

Putin believes that a 30 -day fire would deprive Russia of its advantage and allow Ukrainians to regroup and rearm.

“What are our guarantees that nothing like this will happen?” He asked rhetorically.

So far, no mechanism has been offered to ensure that the terms of any high fire are maintained.

Although 15 Western countries have tentatively offered peace maintenance troops, they would only come in case of a final peace agreement, not a fire.

It is not that Russia allows that agreement anyway.

Given all these “nuances”, Putin seemed to be skeptical about how a high fire could benefit Russia, especially when his troops were on the front foot. His entire perspective was “based on how the situation develops in the field.”

Putin was with Trump’s envoys in Moscow on Thursday night, especially Steve Witkoff.

Whatever happens in those conversations, Putin knows that, ultimately, his most important conversation will be with the president.

“I think we must talk to our American colleagues … maybe they have a phone call with President Trump and discuss this with him,” he said.

But Putin was establishing his position before those conversations, with a message that the road to a high fire was full of conditions that would be almost impossible to meet.