After talks between mediators, the U.S. turned down Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of a ceasefire in Ukraine to stop the fighting, three Russian sources familiar with the talks told Reuters.
Putin’s plan didn’t work, and the deadliest war in Europe since World War II is now in its third year. It also shows how far apart the world’s two most considerable nuclear powers are.

A source in the United States denied that there had been any official contact and said that Washington would not hold talks without Ukraine.
Russian sources say that in 2023, Putin told Washington he was open to discussing peace in Ukraine. He did this in public and in private through intermediaries such as Moscow’s Arab friends in the Middle East and others.

Some people in the Kremlin believed that the signal was the best way to achieve some peace, even though Putin wanted to stop the fighting where it was and wouldn’t cede any of the Ukrainian territory that Russia controlled.
“The talks with the Americans didn’t lead to anything,” a top Russian source who knew about the talks in late 2023 and early 2024 told Reuters but asked to remain anonymous because the situation was so sensitive.

A second Russian source who knew about the talks told Reuters that the Americans told Moscow through the intermediaries that they would not discuss a possible ceasefire without Ukraine’s involvement. This meant that the talks failed, and the contacts stopped.
Another person involved in the discussions said, “Everything fell apart with the Americans.” The source said that the U.S. didn’t want to put any pressure on Ukraine.

No one has ever talked about how wrong the contacts were or how they failed.
It comes at a time when U.S. President Joe Biden has been trying for months to get Congress to accept more help for Ukraine, but supporters of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, have been fighting him.
There were no comments from the Kremlin, the White House, the U.S. State Department, or the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

THE U.S. SAYS “NO BACK LAND”

It was in February 2022 that Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine. This started a full-scale war after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian allies.

Western countries see Putin’s attack as an imperialistic land grab that threatens the post-Cold War international order. Ukraine says it is fighting for its very survival.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, says he will never let Russia take over Ukrainian land. He has made it illegal to talk to Russia.

An anonymous U.S. source in Washington said that the U.S. has not had any back-channel talks with Russia and that Washington has always kept its word about not talking about Ukraine behind its back.

The U.S. person said that it looked like unauthorized “Track II” talks took place between Russians who were not in the government, but the U.S. was not involved.

Based on what the media have said, the U.S. source said Putin’s offer was the same as previous demands that Russia stay on Ukrainian land. According to the source, Moscow seemed angry that Washington had refused to accept it repeatedly.

Last week, Putin told Tucker Carlson, a talk show host in the United States, that Russia was ready for “dialogue.”

CONTACTS

Three Russian sources say that intermediaries got together in Turkey in late 2023.

A fourth foreign source said that Russia had set up unofficial meetings between the U.S. and Russia through intermediaries, but they didn’t seem to have led to anything.

The U.S. source said he didn’t know about any private talks happening through intermediaries.

Three Russian sources say that Putin’s message got to Washington, where key U.S. officials met, such as White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, CIA Director Bill Burns, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

One of the Russian sources said that the plan was for Sullivan to talk to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy assistant, and lay out the next moves.

One of the Russian sources said that when Sullivan called Ushakov in January, he told him that Washington was ready to talk about other parts of the relationship but not a truce without Ukraine.

According to the U.S. source, Sullivan supposedly called, but they wouldn’t say anything about the calls or whether Sullivan did talk to Ushakov.

PUTIN IS “READY TO FIGHT ON”

One of the Russian sources was angry at the U.S. for standing firm on its decision not to push Ukraine toward talks, even though the U.S. was helping to pay for the war.

Another Russian person said, “Putin said, ‘I knew they wouldn’t do anything.”. “They cut off the root of the contacts, which had taken two months to create.”

A second Russian source said that it looked like the U.S. didn’t think Putin was telling the truth.

“The U.S. didn’t think Putin was serious about a ceasefire, but he was and still is; he’s ready to talk about one.” A Russian official said, “Putin is also ready to fight for as long as it takes, and Russia can fight for as long as it takes.”

Russian sources said that the White House doesn’t see much point in talking to the U.S. about the problem again so that the war can go on.