Putin presses Russia’s battlefield advantage ahead of talks with US on Ukraine ceasefire

Russian President Vladimir Putin, clad in military attire, commanded the rapid defeat of Ukrainian troops in western Russia, indicating to the United States that Moscow possesses the military advantage as they gear up to talk about a ceasefire on Thursday.

Recent Russian progress on the front lines and U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to negotiate a peace agreement to conclude the three-year conflict in Ukraine have spurred concerns that Kyiv, supported by the West, may face defeat in the war.

Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Moscow on Thursday to meet with Putin. Russian officials indicated that U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz shared information on the ceasefire proposal on Wednesday, and Russia was prepared to engage in discussions about it.

On Wednesday in the White House, Trump mentioned that he was optimistic the Kremlin would accept the U.S. plan for a 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine indicated it would back.

Only a few hours after Trump’s remarks, the Kremlin released video of Putin wearing a green camouflage outfit in the Kursk area of western Russia, where Ukraine is poised to lose its position following a swift offensive by Russian troops.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine at the beginning of 2022 has resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties, forced millions to flee, turned cities into ruins, and sparked the largest conflict between Moscow and the West in sixty years.

To distract Russian troops from eastern Ukraine, acquire leverage, and shame Putin, Ukraine launched a significant offensive into the Kursk region in August, marking the largest assault on Russian soil since the Nazi invasion in 1941. Currently, Ukraine controls a section of less than 200 square km (77 square miles) in Kursk, reduced from 1,300 square km (500 square miles) at the height of the incursion last summer.