"Putin responded on December 26 to a journalist's request to comment on the Trump team’s reported early November suggestion to delay Ukraine's membership in NATO for 10 to 20 years," the US think tank said in a report.
"Putin stated that it does not matter if Ukraine joins NATO 'today, tomorrow, or in 10 years,'" the ISW added.
It assessed that Putin's latest statement "is part of a series of comments he has made recently reiterating his refusal to consider compromises on his late 2021 and early 2022 demands."
These demands include forcing Ukraine to become a permanently neutral state that will never join NATO, imposing severe limitations on the size of the Ukrainian military, and removing the Ukrainian government, according to the ISW.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "reiterated Putin's false claims that the current Ukrainian government is illegitimate and cannot be a legitimate negotiating partner for Russia," the ISW said in its latest analysis of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.
Lavrov claimed on Thursday during an interview with Russian and foreign media that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not legitimate under Ukraine's constitution and that Ukraine needs to hold presidential elections, the ISW reported.
It said Kremlin officials have been deliberately misinterpreting the Ukrainian constitution and Ukrainian law to delegitimatize Ukraine's government and sovereignty in recent months.
The Kremlin's allegations that Zelensky and the Ukrainian government are not legitimate demonstrate that the Kremlin is unwilling in engage in negotiations with Ukraine or are effectively demanding regime change in Kyiv as a precondition for negotiations, according to the ISW.
"Putin and other Kremlin officials have repeatedly reiterated this false narrative about Zelensky's alleged illegitimacy in order to blame Ukraine—and not Russia—for delaying negotiations," the Washington-based think tank said.
"This false narrative also promotes Putin's demand for the removal of the legitimate, democratically elected Ukrainian government—one of the Kremlin's ongoing maximalist demands in the war," it added.
Russia invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea on February 24, 2022, starting the largest military conflict in Europe since World War II.
Friday is day 1,037 of Russia's war on Ukraine.
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Source: IAR, PAP, understandingwar.org