The ISW made the assessment in its latest report on the war in Ukraine, published on Monday night.
The US experts wrote: “Russian President Vladimir Putin did not offer to negotiate with Ukraine on December 25 contrary to some reporting.”
The Washington-based think tank added: “Putin, in a TV interview, stated that he does not think that the war is approaching a ‘dangerous line’ and noted that Russia has no choice but to continue to defend its citizens, before stating that Russia ‘is ready to negotiate with all parties’ involved in the conflict.”
The ISW reported that “Putin did not explicitly state that Russia was ready to negotiate directly with Ukraine, instead maintaining his false narrative that Ukraine – which he simply called the ‘the other side’ - had violated Russia’s pre-invasion diplomatic efforts.”
The US experts further stated: “Putin’s discussions of negotiations have focused on putative discussions with the West rather than with Ukraine, and reflect his continual accusations that Ukraine is merely a Western pawn with no real agency. This statement was not a departure from that rhetorical line.”
Moreover, Putin also said that Russia was “operating in a correct direction,” which indicates that the Kremlin leader “has not set serious conditions for negotiations and still wishes to pursue his maximalist goals,” according to the ISW.
Putin aiming to ‘mislead West’
The US think tank wrote that "Putin’s December 25 statement is a part of a deliberate information campaign aimed at misleading the West to push Ukraine into making preliminary concessions.”
The ISW also said that the Kremlin had not published the full transcript of Putin’s interview on its official website, as is normal procedure, “possibly to facilitate the misrepresentation of Putin’s full statement originally broadcasted in Russian and highlight his vague statement on negotiations.”
The US experts added that “the Kremlin’s use of the interview clip on the Christmas holiday may also be a response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent speech at the US Congress amidst the holiday season.”
Ukraine pushes for peace summit by end of February
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has announced that his government is seeking to hold a peace summit by the end of February, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Kuleba said that Ukraine would like the event to be held at the United Nations and with UN Secretary-General António Guterres as the mediator, according to The Guardian.
However, Russia could only be invited after facing a tribunal for its war crimes in Ukraine, Kuleba said.
Intense fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk regions
On the frontlines, fighting "has remained focused around the Bakhmut sector of Donetsk Oblast, and near Svatove in Luhansk" over the last 48 hours, according to the British Ministry of Defence.
In its latest intelligence update on the war in Ukraine, published on Twitter on Tuesday, the UK Ministry of Defence said: “Russia continues to initiate frequent small-scale assaults in these areas, although little territory has changed hands.”
Meanwhile, “to the north, elements of Russia’s 1st Guards Tank Army were probably amongst the Russian forces recently deployed to Belarus,” the British Ministry of Defence reported.
It added that “this formation was likely conducting training before its deployment and is unlikely to have the support units needed to make it combat-ready.”
‘Bakhmut is our eastern fortress now’: Ukrainian official
Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said in a TV interview on Monday night that the Russians "have set themselves the goal of reaching the borders of Donetsk Oblast by the end of the calendar year."
Maliar said the city of Bakhmut was now Ukraine's "eastern fortress" where Russian forces "have concentrated military equipment and weapons."
She stated in the interview that "there was a slight advance" on the Bakhmut front, "but the enemy was pushed out."
She added, as quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda website: "As of today, the enemy is trying to surround the city, but they are also not succeeding."
Ukraine’s army said that dozens of towns in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzia regions were being shelled by Russian troops, The Guardian reported on Tuesday morning.
In the southern Kherson province, for instance, Russia shelled populated areas along the right bank of the Dnipro River, according to Ukrainian military authorities.
Russian authorities criticised after Ukraine strikes deep into Russia
Meanwhile, “Ukrainian strikes on legitimate military targets far in the Russian rear continue to be points of neuralgia for the Russian milblogger community,” the ISW reported.
According to the US think tank, “Russian sources began reporting explosions near the Engels Airbase in Saratov Oblast on the night of December 25 and the morning of December 26.”
The Russian Ministry of Defence said that “Russian air defense shot down a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that was approaching the Engels airfield at low altitude" and that the wreckage of the UAV killed three Russian servicemen, according to the ISW.
The think tank said that several prominent Russian military bloggers “latched onto the Russian MoD report on the incident as an opportunity to criticise domestic Russian air defense capabilities and question Russian authorities’ handling of and response to reported Ukrainian strikes deep in the Russian rear.”
Poland at forefront of military aid to Ukraine: EU’s top diplomat
Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that Poland was "leading the way among EU countries when it comes to providing military assistance to Ukraine,” Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Speaking in an interview published on Tuesday morning, Borrell thanked the Polish army and the Polish people "for the great effort they are making,” according to the PAP news agency.
Tuesday is day 307 of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, understandingwar.org, The Guardian, UK Ministry of Defence, Ukrainska Pravda