Putin's ultimatum is admission of defeat in this war - political analyst 

He shared his opinion with Espreso TV.

"Putin's ultimatum is an unprecedented proposal in the history of world wars and world history - give me back the territories that I could not capture from you, then I am ready for a truce. No one would take this seriously, no one would accept it. But look at this ultimatum from the other side, through the eyes of Putin's patriotic cattle who support it - it is a retreat. Putin started the war with an ultimatum to 30 NATO countries. Threatening them with destruction, he told them on the day the war was declared that if you only dare to help Ukrainians, to prevent me from destroying Ukraine, you will face such catastrophes that you have not known in your thousand-year history. That is, he threatened with nuclear weapons. Now it is clear that this is an empty threat, the West is not afraid of it," Piontkovsky explained.

According to the political scientist, Putin is now trying his best to stay in power in Russia.

"And Putin is now preoccupied with another issue. Yes, he wanted to become the master of the universe, he was sure that Kyiv would fall in 7 days and that the West would retreat almost to the English Channel. But now he is preoccupied with something else - he needs to stay in power in a country that has been defeated. Because even his ultimatum, brazen and ridiculous, is an admission of the defeat of his war plans, which he announced on February 24. Now his task is to stay in power," he added.

Piontkovsky also believes that Putin will try to blame the generals for the defeat in the war. The fight against corruption in the Russian Ministry of Defense is allegedly dedicated to these attempts.

"And how can this be done? To make some kind of deal that will leave him with a large part of the territory of Ukraine. That's why he hopes to sell this decision to his people - his population and his supporters - as an honorable draw. Like, yes, I failed to achieve our great goal. And he has already prepared the culprit: because the army consists of thieves and traitors, his entire fight against corruption is an attempt to blame the army for the failure of the plan to take over Ukraine. Everyone knows that Timur Ivanov was Shoigu's wallet, and Shoigu himself was Putin's wallet. And all these billions went into the pockets of Putin's group. So it's ridiculous that he suddenly found out that there was corruption in the army. He is preparing two things. The first is to prepare this agreement on an honorable draw and sell it to the population, to blame the failure of the great goal of capturing Ukraine and Europe on corrupt generals," the political analyst said.

• On June 14, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said that the Ukrainian military should allegedly withdraw from the temporarily occupied territories in order to negotiate with Russia. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry commented.