Vladimir Putin refuses to open discussions about a ceasefire and a possible peace.
Instead, he wants to see a “final solution” to the war – which involves crushing the Ukrainian state.
At the same time, a new survey shows that support for a nuclear attack on Ukraine is increasing among Russians.
It was during Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Hungarian colleague Viktor Orbán in Moscow, and set the stage for a potential ceasefire in the country’s war against Ukraine.
Putin does not want to give the Ukrainians a chance to regroup and should not be willing to accept anything other than a “complete annihilation of the Ukrainian state and its identity”, writes ISW.
Furthermore, Putin demands that Ukraine give up large parts of its territory and that its military capitulate before he can even consider sitting down at the negotiating table.
Ukraine refutes
The Russian president tried to give the impression that Viktor Orbán was visiting in the capacity of both the prime minister of Hungary and as a representative of the EU.
Something that was rejected by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU leaders Josep Borell and Charles Michel, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Survey: More positive for nuclear weapons
Before the meeting, a new poll was presented on the Russians’ view of the use of nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine.
The survey, conducted by the independent Russian Levada Center, showed that ten percent believed that a nuclear attack on Ukraine would definitely be justified, reports The Kyiv Independent.
24 percent responded that such an attack would probably be justified – an increase of five percentage points over the past year.
52 percent of respondents opposed the use of nuclear weapons, but that is down from 56 percent from the last survey.
Vladimir Putin has threatened with nuclear weapons on several occasions, and Russia is said to have entered a second stage of nuclear weapons tests together with Belarus just over a month ago, writes The Kyiv Independent.