Putin is not ready for negotiations, and even more so for the end of war in Ukraine - ISW

This was reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Analysts noted that the Kremlin chief promoted propaganda theses during the meeting with representatives of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) special services.

"Putin stated that Ukraine has "lost sovereignty" and the United States is using Ukraine as a "battering ram" against Russia, the Russian-Belarusian Union State, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and the CIS," ISW reports.

Experts said Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin supported his dictator's maddening narrative. The deputy said that "Ukraine is occupied by NATO," and "has become a colony of the USA."

The Institute for the Study of War stressed that such rhetoric is incompatible with negotiations on an equal basis for a ceasefire, let alone a resolution to the conflict that Russia began.

"It instead strongly suggests that the Kremlin still seeks a military victory in Ukraine and regime change in Kyiv that would affect the permanent reorientation of Ukraine away from the West and into Russia’s control. It also indicates that Putin’s aims transcend the territory he has claimed to have annexed," the analysts added.