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Alessandra Muglia
The Kremlin’s strategy: bombs even at Christmas and “always open” negotiations. Even if, according to analysts quoted by the New York Times, the intention is to say no to the new peace plan
Best wishes, but no gifts about Ukraine where Russian bombs on civilians didn’t stop even on Christmas night. What (dramatic) resolutions do you have? Vladimir Putin for 2026 we can also guess from the words of his spokesman Dmitri Peskov: the president sent a telegram of congratulations to TrumpDmitri Peskov told journalists today, also pointing out that for now no improvement is on the horizon on the war in Ukraine, after the talks last week in Miami between the Russian envoy Dmitriev with Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. «We are analyzing what Dmitriev sent to Putin, we are analyzing this material and then, depending on the decisions that the head of state will make, we will continue our communication with the Americans.”
Take time, Moscowe denies Bloomberg rumors that the Kremlin has asked for changes to the US plan for the end of the war in Ukraine. “It’s fake news,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied on Telegram.
However, the New York Times also believes that Russia is preparing to reject the new peace plan of the United States and Ukrainealso in the new version announced on Christmas Eve by Zelensky, with the new opening of the Ukrainian president. He says he is willing to withdraw the army from the part of Donbass that he still controls, but only if Russia also does so, freeing an equivalent portion of territory for the creation of a “demilitarized zone”. A condition that Moscow may not accept, given that it has always asked for the complete cession of Donbass and has always excluded a withdrawal, even partial, from the territories it occupies after the invasion.
Zelensky presented the new proposal as a reasonable compromise compared to the November plan – too unbalanced in favor of the Russians – which essentially involved the surrender of Ukraine. The revised version includes security guarantees that Kiev is demanding to prevent future Russian aggression, as well as plans to rebuild the war-torn nation. But it is unlikely – explains the New York Times – that the Kremlin will accept it, encouraged as it is by Moscow’s progress on the battlefield (today he claimed the conquest of another locality in Donetsk, Sviato-Pokrovskoe) and held back by the difficulty of selling the new plan to the Russian public as a victory.
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Why can Moscow afford to reject the plan?
Although the invasion had a very high cost for the Russians, both in economic and human terms, the Kremlin still seems to believe it can achieve more by fighting.
The Russian economy is at its weakest point since 2022, with interest rates at record levels and growth rates sliding into recession.
But despite the sanctions imposed by the West, for analysts the country is still far from the kind of economic crisis that would force the Kremlin to change course. Russia occupies about three-quarters of the Donetsk region. At the current pace of their advance, it would take Moscow’s forces about 18 months to conquer the entire region.
Why is Russia still negotiating?
According to experts, Russia is interested in keeping the negotiating table open only for maintain a collaborative relationship with Washington and avoid taking full responsibility for the ongoing conflict. Moscow is also interested in avoiding further sanctions or other economic restrictions from Washington. The sanctions imposed and threatened in October by Trump on the two Russian oil giants, Rosneft and Lukoil, forced the country to sell its oil at significantly lower prices.
Third reason: the push and pull over possible peace conditions further aggravates the rifts between Ukraine and its Western allies. According to commentators, diplomatic clashes over peace terms are likely to continue as the war continues. “Putin has no intention of ending the war against Ukraine and is not ready to make even minimal compromises at this stage,” assures Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kiev-based analyst, in a Facebook post. «For the Kremlin, discussing Trump’s peace plan is purely a tactical game with the United States to maintain constructive relations with the current American president, at the same time causing friction and contradictions between the United States and Ukraine.”
December 25, 2025 (changed December 25, 2025 | 2:23 pm)
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