Putin openly declares disinterest in peace talks, which he never used to do in Biden's time

From the To Be Or blog, Dec 27, 2025 (hattip: Dialog):

"Putin: "Judging by the pace we're seeing at the front line, our interest in withdrawing Ukrainian military units from the territories they currently occupy is essentially zero. For a variety of reasons. And if the Kyiv authorities don't want to resolve the matter peacefully, we will resolve all the tasks facing us during the special military operation by force of arms." 

 __ 

Wow. That's right. 

I interpret this as "if you don't leave now, we might as well abandon the negotiations altogether because we're moving so fast that we're not interested." 

 

A new ultimatum to Ukraine. 

 

Like, Zelenskyy, get out of the "territories you occupy" (which ones, by the way?), otherwise even Trump won't force me to sit down at the table. Like, this is your last chance. 

 

The only thing is, I'm not sure he can afford to walk out of the negotiations right now, because there's still the risk of incurring Trump's wrath. But as an additional pressure before tomorrow's meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump—yes, it absolutely goes.

What can I say here... He's never allowed himself to do this before. 

 

While the widely disliked Biden administration was talking to him from a position of strength, he was forced to play dumb, like, "What are you talking about? We've always been for negotiations, from day one!" 

 

 Now he feels so secure that he's threatening to walk away from the talks. 

 

This demonstrates once again that he can only show a genuine interest in negotiations if he's stopped at the front.

But for now, even without the successes he boasts of, he is so confident in the irreversibility of his victory that he allows himself to doubt the very need to participate in peace negotiations, despite the fact that he has never actually participated in them - he only pretended to."