Putin rejects Trump’s peace deal for Ukraine, continues attacks on civilians

The provocative statements that Putin made during his visit to the Russian military submarine Arkhangelsk on March 27, 2025, confirmed what we reported on March 19, 2025–Putin is practically rejecting the peace process for Ukraine, initiated by Trump, while previously, both of them unjustifiably accused Zelensky of such rejection. Trump understands this, and he is already losing patience with Putin, so he is threatening him with new and harsher sanctions

 

Author: Vangel Bashevski

 

On March 27, 2025, Vladimir Putin participated in the International Arctic Forum in Murmansk in northern Russia, but he also used the occasion to ceremonially commission the Perm submarine, armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles, which can also be used for nuclear attacks, and he also visited a similar submarine– Arkhangelsk.

The Russian Embassy shared a link to a transcript of statements made during that visit, which make it clear that Putin is effectively rejecting the peace process for Ukraine initiated by Donald Trump, even though Putin does not say so explicitly. This confirms our article from 19.3.2025, entitled “Putin is blocking peace, not Zelensky and the Europeans”, in which, among other things, we wrote:

Vladimir Putin did not give a clear and decisive answer. He stated that, in principle, he is in favor of a ceasefire, but that there are some niceties that need to be “ironed out” first. This means that his acceptance is conditional and with reservations, which Zelensky interprets as a practical rejection of peace, otherwise Russia would accept the ceasefire without complications.

 

Primarily warlike, not peaceful statements

Putin spoke with the naval officers commanding the submarine about the conflict in Ukraine and the ongoing peace negotiations, and, among other things, said:

We are in favor of all issues being resolved by peaceful means.

However, that call for peace was unconvincing and was just a drop in the ocean of bellicose statements and threats directed at Ukrainians, such as the following:

I was saying quite recently that we would pressure them and there is reason to assume that we would beat them to the punch.

A head of state negotiating peace should not make such statements, especially not from a military submarine, so it is clear that Putin is not calling for peace, but for the continuation of the war until the destruction of Ukrainian forces.

The predictions were that the peace agreement would provide for a “freezing” of the situation on the front, with each side retaining the territories it actually controls, without demanding those it merely claims, but Russia is against that solution. It has demanded that the territories it claims be handed over “on a platter,” and since that is unrealistic, Putin is now speaking of their conquest, which he calls “liberation:”

The Luhansk People’s Republic has been liberated by 99 percent, i.e. its territory, as well as the Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia–by more than 70 percent. Our units, our boys, are moving forward and liberating territories one after another.

The problem is that Putin annexed four Ukrainian regions, but without fully occupying them in full, so that annexation is largely only on paper. He did not occupy Zaporizhzhia, which he considers a “city in Russia” by constitution and law, which also applies to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, but also to Kherson, which he occupied, but quickly lost. Putin’s desire to completely conquer those regions does not help the peace process, which requires compromises, but Putin does not want to make them.

 

Challenging Zelensky’s legitimacy and requesting an interim administration

Putin disputes the legitimacy of Volodymyr Zelensky, pointing out that elections have not been held in Ukraine for a long time. However, according to Article 11, Paragraph 3 of the Law on Martial Law of Ukraine, the president’s term is extended, and according to Article 19, Paragraph 1, elections are not held, so Zelensky is a legitimate president. By seeking an excuse not to sign a peace agreement with Zelensky, Putin shows that he does not want to sign anything, and proof of this is his proposal, which is completely absurd, according to which under the auspices of the UN there should be:

…consideration of the possibility of introducing an interim administration in Ukraine. And why? To hold democratic elections and bring to power a capable government that has the trust of the people, and then to begin negotiations with it on a peace treaty, to sign legitimate documents.

This seems more like a sarcastic joke (or, in internet slang: trolling), than a serious proposal for achieving peace. Putin here acts as if Ukraine has capitulated, and now it is time to decide its future structure. However, Putin did not defeat Ukraine, because he did not achieve the set goal of the so-called denazification, by which he meant the capture of Kyiv and the overthrow and lustration of the government there, which he falsely describes as “Nazi”.

Zelensky is of Jewish origin and cannot be a Nazi, while Ukraine banned Nazism with a law passed on April 9, 2015. Ukraine is a democratic state, unlike Russia, where Putin has ruled through authoritarian means for 26 years and where most of Putin’s influential opposition candidates have been assassinated.

There are a number of neo-Nazis in Ukraine, but they are marginalized. They were prominent during the chaotic period of 2014, which was later brought under control and which we have already written about. Moreover, ironically, Russian neo-Nazis such as Alexey Milchakov with the Rusich Group are participating in the aggression against Ukraine.

Putin now wants to achieve his goal by using Trump, who is sympathetic to him, to pressure Zelensky to hold elections, after which someone more acceptable to Putin could take his place. But the United States has rejected the idea of ​​such an interim administration and is already losing patience with Putin, whom Trump has even threatened with new and harsher sanctions.

A look back at failed peace treaties and threats to the British

Instead of focusing on the upcoming peace agreement, Putin is looking back at some of the old ones, such as Minsk 1 (September 5, 2014) and Minsk 2 (February 12, 2015), for whose collapse he blames the Ukrainians and their Western partners, even though Russia and the so-called DNR and LNR violated those agreements.

Putin also told the submarine officers how Russia negotiated peace in the spring of 2022, when an agreement was reached with the Ukrainians in Istanbul, but they allegedly rejected it under the influence of Boris Johnson, although they had first agreed to the draft of that agreement:

They initialed it, they already signed it, everything in it satisfied them. Then, as is also known, their curators arrived from Europe, more precisely from Great Britain, the former Prime Minister Mr. Johnson, who convinced the Ukrainian leadership that it was necessary to continue the armed struggle. He, most likely, forgot that there are such collectives as yours, such means as your submarine. He, apparently, forgot or they do not understand at all what the Russian people are, what is in the soul and heart of our people when it comes to the security of the Fatherland.

These patriotic tirades by Putin do not contribute in any way to the current peace negotiations, and although some Ukrainian diplomats agreed with some of the draft agreement in Istanbul, in general, they did not want to sign it, and so they didn’t.

According to Ukraine, it was not an agreement, but an ultimatum with a number of demands that it had to fulfill (to reduce its army, not to join NATO, etc.), which would practically lead it to capitulation, after which it would have no protection from future Russian attacks. The guarantor of its security, according to the agreement, would be Russia, which is absurd, because it is the aggressor and it was already a guarantor with the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, which it violated with the invasion of Crimea in 2014.

The disinformation that the Ukrainians were ready to sign the agreement in Istanbul in 2022, but were dissuaded by Johnson, is based on statements by Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia, which were misrepresented by Russian disinformation agents.

According to them, Johnson did this during his visit to Kyiv on April 9, 2022, but it is forgotten that Russia had already been defeated in the battle for the city by then, which showed that it was not invincible and contributed to the Ukrainians giving up on the Istanbul agreement.

The revelations of Russian war crimes and mass graves in Bucha, Irpin and other places around Kyiv also contributed to this. There is no hard evidence of Johnson influencing the Ukrainians. He allegedly only stated that the agreement was pointless, and they were not eager to sign it anyway.

Even if Johnson influenced them, that is already history, and Putin should concentrate on the current peace negotiations. But during the submarine visit, he made threats to the Ukrainians, as well as to the British, whom he described as aggressive towards Russia.

In reality, they are not, they are only proposing their own peacekeepers, who would monitor the implementation of the peace agreement, but Russia refuses. It is important for Ukraine that someone be a guarantor of that agreement, because even if it is signed, Russia can violate it and attack again. That request by Ukraine for security guarantees is understandable, unlike the Russian demands, which are irrational.

 

Conclusion

Putin talks about “beating up” Ukrainian forces and rejects a ceasefire “freeze,” European peacekeepers and an agreement with the “illegitimate” Ukrainian leadership. He only partially accepted the idea of ​​a 30-day ceasefire to halt attacks in the Black Sea and on energy infrastructure. But he does not respect that either, setting numerous conditions, and interpreting it willfully, so we conclude that Putin simply does not want peace. Worst of all, he continues to attack civilians in Ukraine, which does not at all resemble a peacemaker.

 

 

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