Putin says Russia won’t make concessions to end war on Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin said Russia is open to a “reasonable compromise” but won’t make any concessions to end its war in Ukraine.

“We aren’t going to make any concessions here, there will be no trades,” Putin said in an interview with Russian state television published on Friday, after he’d hosted a summit of BRICS countries in Kazan. “We are ready to make reasonable compromises, but I don‘t want to go into details right now because there are no substantive negotiations.”

The Russian leader’s comments signal a growing confidence in the Kremlin as its troops advance in eastern Ukraine and evidence of war fatigue emerges among some of Kyiv’s allies. The interview came after Putin hosted the largest gathering of world leaders in Russia since the start of the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Some in attendance at the BRICS summit spoke about the need to de-escalate the conflict, but nobody publicly confronted Putin.

“Any outcome should benefit Russia,” Putin said. “It must proceed from the realities that are taking shape on the battlefield.”

That’s a reference to areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia’s army that Putin now illegally claims to be part of his country. Ukraine and its allies say Putin has shown no sign he’s ready to end the invasion and negotiate a settlement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has reiterated that his country can’t accept a frozen conflict or trade territories for peace, even as some allies have started to urge him to outline some terms for bringing the war to an end.

In the interview, Putin said he had seen a shift in how Western countries viewed the conflict. “Yesterday, they were saying that it was necessary to achieve a strategic defeat for Russia,” he said. “Today, however, the rhetoric has already changed.”

Putin also said that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave him new proposals in Kazan for ensuring the safety of shipping in the Black Sea, though “I haven’t studied them yet.”