Putin is STILL NOT agreeing to anything except Trump’s effort to sell out Ukraine….
The idea that Putin has dreams of bringing back the old Soviet Union persist …
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that he wishes for a Russia-Ukraine war peace deal “that would prevent a third invasion,” likely referencing the 2014 and 2022 Russian incursions on Ukrainian territory.
“Listen, we’ve made great progress between Ukraine, Europe and the United States to come up with a proposal that would end the war. We’re not going to evict every Russian out of Ukraine, I understand that, but I want a deal that would prevent a third invasion,” Graham told NBC News’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.”…
…
White House envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that talks in Miami with both his Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev and with Ukrainian national security adviser Rustem Umerov were “productive and constructive” — but the discussions offered no clear breakthroughs to ending the war.
“Ukraine remains fully committed to achieving a just and sustainable peace,” Witkoff wrote in a statement. “Our shared priority is to stop the killing, ensure guaranteed security, and create conditions for Ukraine’s recovery, stability, and long-term prosperity.”
The readouts capped a weekend of meetings in Florida weeks after the Trump administration proposed a plan to end the war in Ukraine with an early draftthat Kyiv officials and its backers in the European Union said was unworkable. Negotiators for Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the U.S. have continued to hash out proposals over the last weeks, though Ukraine and Russia have not directly negotiated, and each side met separately with U.S. officials in Florida.
Representatives from Russia and Ukraine shared Witkoff’s remarks on social media Sunday but offered no further details on possible progress made in the talks. Umerov issued a verbatim duplicate of Witkoff’s statement about Ukraine on X, while Dmitriev reposted Witkoff’s statement about talks with Russia.
The gulf between what the two warring sides want remains vast….
…
-
The Ukrainian army was battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region, it said on Sunday, after reports that Moscow forcibly moved 50 people from a border village there. That marks a renewed Russian advance in the part of the region largely spared from intense ground fighting since Ukraine regained land there in a 2022 counteroffensive. “Fighting is currently ongoing in the village of Grabovske,” Ukraine’s joint taskforce said, adding the troops were “making efforts to drive the occupiers back into Russian territory”. It has also refuted media reports saying Moscow’s troops were in the neighbouring Ryasne village. Earlier on Sunday, the Ukrainian rights ombudsman said Russian troops forcibly moved about 50 people from Grabovske to Russia. There was no official comment from Russia. On Saturday, the Russian army said it had captured the village of Vysoke, a short distance from Grabovske.
-
US and Ukrainian envoys issued a joint statement on Sunday saying talks in Miami had been “productive and constructive” but did not announce any apparent breakthrough in efforts to end the Russian invasion. “Over the last three days in Florida, the Ukrainian delegation held a series of productive and constructive meetings with American and European partners,” Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said in separate statements on X on Sunday. Witkoff posted: “Our shared priority is to stop the killing, ensure guaranteed security and create conditions for Ukraine’s recovery, stability and long-term prosperity. Peace must be not only a cessation of hostilities, but also a dignified foundation for a stable future.”
-
The Kremlin on Sunday denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US were on the cards. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a day earlier that Washington had mooted the trilateral format, which would mark Moscow and Kyiv’s first face-to-face negotiations in half a year, but the Ukrainian president expressed scepticism that they would lead to progress. Russian news agencies reported Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, as telling reporters: “At present, no one has seriously discussed this initiative, and to my knowledge it is not in preparation.” Russian representatives have also been in southern Florida for discussions with the US over Ukraine, with a Kremlin envoy saying on Saturday that the talks had been pressing on “constructively”.
-
Keir Starmer discussed efforts to achieve a “just and lasting end” to the war in a Sunday call with Donald Trump, the British prime minister’s office said in a statement after the Florida talks. “The two leaders began by reflecting on the war in Ukraine,” Starmer’s office said in a readout of the call, adding they had discussed the work of the so-called “coalition of the willing” countries that have pledged to support Kyiv.
-
Russia has renewed its criticism of efforts by Europe and Ukraine to amend US proposals to end the war in Ukraine, saying they did not improve prospects for peace. Rory Carroll reports that Putin aide Ushakov told reporters on Sunday that the proposed tweaks to Washington’s plan could prolong the conflict. “I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace,” Ushakov said. He added that he had not seen the exact proposals and that his criticism was “not a forecast”.
-
US intelligence reports continue to warn that Putin has not abandoned his aims of capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire, Reuters reported six sources familiar with intelligence as saying, even as negotiators seek an end to the war that would leave Russia with far less territory. The most recent of the reports dates from late September, one of the sources said. The intelligence contradicts the Russian leader’s denials that he is a threat to Europe. “The intelligence has always been that Putin wants more,” Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the House intelligence committee, told Reuters. “The Europeans are convinced of it. The Poles are absolutely convinced of it. The Baltics think they’re first.”…
ISW…Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 21, 2025
- Russian forces are conducting a new cognitive warfare campaign through limited cross-border attacks across a broad part of the previously dormant northern frontline in Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts.
- These two cross-border attacks likely intend to advance the Kremlin’s cognitive warfare campaign to convince the West that the frontlines in Ukraine are collapsing, such that Ukraine should concede to all of Russia’s demands.
- Russian forces have not set conditions to start a new offensive across the international border in northern Ukraine.
- Russian forces notably have not prepared the battlefield in northern Sumy or Kharkiv oblasts for a major ground offensive through intermediate-range strikes against Ukrainian logistics.
- The Russian tactics in the assault in Sotnytskyi Kozachok are not consistent with Russian assault tactics across the theater and suggest the attack was designed to be seen.
- Russian forces forcibly deported about 50 civilians from Sumy Oblast in violation of international law.
- Russian forces have likely seized Siversk — a town with a pre-war population of less than 11,000 — after 41 months of fighting.
- US delegations continued separate meetings with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Miami on December 21 as the Kremlin continues to reject making compromises to end the war.
- Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the border area of Belgorod Oblast and near Pokrovsk. Russian forces recently advanced in the Slovyansk-Lyman direction, in the border areas of Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts, and near Borova and Siversk.
Daily Kos grunt report for Today….
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.