The kremlin is betting on prolonging peace talks on Ukraine to seize as much territory as possible before a ceasefire, reports the Telegram channel "The Moscow Times", citing four sources familiar with the logic of russia’s top leadership.
"Time is on our side now, and we will try to make the most of it", - a russian diplomat told "The Moscow Times".
According to another source close to the kremlin, a group of negotiators, including Senator Grigory Karasin and former head of the FSB’s Fifth Service Sergei Beseda, has been tasked with "picking apart every comma" in the draft agreements.
The kremlin hopes that Washington will either turn a blind eye to russia’s continued offensive on the battlefield or even pressure Kyiv to completely withdraw troops from the occupied regions, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, said a current russian official.
Although neither the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, nor Kherson oblasts are fully controlled by the russian army, moscow is determined to cement its grip on these territories at any cost, as putin cannot afford to lose them after their status was enshrined in russia’s constitution, stated a source close to the kremlin.
As an alternative, russia may attempt to seize part of another Ukrainian oblast, such as the Dnipropetrovsk or Sumy, and then offer an exchange for the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, the source added.
According to diplomats, moscow believes that the exact location of the dividing line is not a critically important issue for Washington.