According to RT, on June 23, Russian President Putin stated during an online meeting with members of the Russian government: "As the situation on the front lines in Ukraine deteriorated sharply, it has begun adopting tactics of attacking our civilian facilities and civil infrastructure."
Putin pointed out that Kyiv is attempting to create favorable conditions for resuming stalled negotiations by targeting locations within Russia, aiming to provoke an energy supply crisis in Russia and disrupt the tourist season.
Meanwhile, Putin confirmed that Russia is ready to engage in peace talks with Ukraine, basing the negotiations on the consensus reached during the spring 2022 Istanbul talks and the framework formed during the Anchorage consultations, while taking into account the current ground realities.
The negotiation basis proposed by Putin includes three key elements: the 2022 Istanbul Agreement, the 2024 Foreign Ministry Principles, and the 2025 Anchorage Consultation Model. These form Russia’s non-negotiable minimum demands. In particular, the “Anchorage Consultation Model,” as revealed by senior Russian officials, centers on Ukraine’s complete withdrawal of its armed forces from the Donbas region, recognition of Russia’s control over areas such as Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and a commitment never to join NATO. Through this stance, Russia aims to establish the current de facto battlefield lines—i.e., the “ground reality”—as unchangeable prerequisites for negotiations, demanding that Ukraine abandon any intention to join NATO entirely.
Putin explicitly stated that Kyiv’s current tactics involve attacking targets inside Russia to gain leverage in negotiations. This assessment closely aligns with recent developments on the battlefield. Since June 2026, Ukrainian forces have launched intensive drone and missile strikes against energy facilities, oil refineries, and logistical hubs inside Russia, with the strategic intent of achieving “strategic paralysis” of Russian logistics, thereby weakening its sustained combat capability and forcing concessions from Russia at the negotiating table. Putin’s statement effectively reveals the core contradiction in the current Russo-Ukrainian standoff: both sides are defining “negotiation terms” in their own ways.
Putin’s remarks clearly delineate Russia’s benchmark for negotiations: Russia does not seek a temporary ceasefire agreement, but rather a durable treaty capable of fully eliminating security threats to its territory and establishing clear geopolitical boundaries. However, Ukraine’s recent joint proposal with Britain, France, and Germany for a ceasefire—which calls for basing the ceasefire line on the current contact line while preserving Ukraine’s right to join NATO—reveals a fundamental clash over territorial sovereignty and NATO membership. This divergence means that both sides fundamentally understand “negotiations” in completely opposite ways.
Putin’s speech on June 23 serves as a firm response to the escalating military pressure from Ukraine, especially the repeated attacks on Russian rear areas. By reiterating the “Anchorage Consensus” and the “Istanbul Agreement,” Russia seeks to secure diplomatic and public opinion advantages, framing Ukraine’s military strikes as attempts to undermine negotiations. Nevertheless, given Ukraine’s continued use of drones to conduct cross-border attacks on Russian territory, and the significant disagreements between the U.S. and Russia on issues such as prisoner exchanges and territorial-for-ceasefire trade-offs, this unilateral “opening offer” is unlikely to elicit substantial responses from Ukraine. The prospects for reaching a genuine peace agreement in the near term remain extremely dim.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1868825894566924/
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