Putin shows no signs of preparing for a ceasefire and wants to prolong the war

Estonia has said that Russia is showing no signs they are preparing for a ceasefire and Vladimir Putin is intensifying shelling to try and strengthen their positions in Ukraine in an attempt to have a greater bargaining chip for negotiations with the US.

Putin and his top officials have rejected America’s terms for negotiations and the Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is dictating that Ukraine give up their territories that have not been occupied, the Russian leader wants all of Ukraine.

Lieutenant Colonel Matthias Puusepp, Commander of the Operations Section of the Estonian Defence Forces Division, that in the first week of the fourth year of this conflict, Russian troops have made no tactical progress anywhere in the war.

Geolocation data shows that Russian troops advance to Pokrovsk has stopped and Ukrainian forces have expanded their defensive perimeter, RBC-Ukraine reports.

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Puusepp said, “There is speculation that Russia might increase shelling, particularly in the Kursk region, to gain a stronger position for negotiations.

“However, based on the available information, Russia does not have the balance of forces that would allow it to succeed in reclaiming the Kursk region quickly.”

“However, Russian forces are showing less determination in their actions and are searching for weak spots in Ukraine’s defence in other sectors,” he added.

The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Putin has told the Federal Security Service (FSB) to continue to strengthen their operations in the Donbas, which Russia calls “Novorossiya,” which the Kremlin says is an “integral” part of the Russian Federation.

Putin and his top team continue to demand that Ukraine surrenders the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions or the war will continue.

The ISW said, “Renewed official Russian statements that the invented region of ‘Novorossiya’ is part of Russia indicate that Putin maintains his maximalist territorial ambitions and is unwilling to offer territorial concessions.”

Earlier this week the ISW said that Putin and Kremlin officials have “not abandoned their original war aims in Ukraine and continue to invoke their goals of ‘denazifying’ and ‘demilitarising’ Ukraine and banning Ukraine’s ability to join any security blocs in the future, despite Russia’s failure to defeat Ukraine militarily over the last three years.”

Even though the US President Donald Trump believes a peace deal can be done, although Puttin is rejecting the peace agreement with Kyiv as he still has an appetite to continue with the war.

The ISW wrote, “Putin continues to signal to the Russian military and society that he will not end the war until Ukraine capitulates completely and that he has no interest in a negotiated peace agreement that requires Russia to compromise its long-standing war aims, despite Putin’s efforts to signal interest in peace negotiations to Western leaders.”