"We want to end the war, not freeze it ." There are only a few days left until the beginning of 2025, which will immediately introduce several new developments on the international political level, starting obviously with the return of Donald Trump to the White House, but it is Vladimir Putin who in these hours seems to want to dictate the line for the new year and to unravel one of the knots that remain most intricate: that of the war in Ukraine with its disruptive effect since Putin himself announced his "special military operation" in February 2022 by invading the neighboring country.
Nearly three years and tens of thousands of deaths later, the Russian president said that Moscow now wants to end the conflict, not just freeze it . Thus, in words, surpassing Donald Trump's infamous plan that seems to be aimed at precisely this.
To end the war , Putin also proposes a physical place to negotiate: Slovakia , led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, who in recent days met the Russian president in the Kremlin despite the chorus of criticism and doubts expressed by several countries, including EU partners, offering to host the talks. An option, Putin explained in response to journalists, that is fine in Moscow.
In the past few hours , Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky for his part had assured that "Ukraine is doing everything possible to ensure that 2025 becomes a year of just and lasting peace for our country and for the entire world". And the admissions of the past few weeks about the difficulties at the front and, above all, about the fact that on the military level it is now necessary to give up on retaking Donbass and Crimea open a glimmer of hope in which a more consistent attempt to bring the parties back to a negotiating table could slip in.
Putin's words were preceded, among others, by those of his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov: " A ceasefire in Ukraine at this point would lead to nothing, while reliable agreements are needed ," said the head of Russian diplomacy, who appeared open to a dialogue with the upcoming Trump administration: "If the signals coming from the new Washington team to restore the dialogue interrupted by the US after the start of the special military operation are serious, of course we will respond to them. The dialogue was interrupted by the Americans, so they should take the first step." But on one condition: the hope that the new White House "understands the reasons that led to the war in Ukraine," Lavrov hoped.
