Russian President Vladimir Putin has been telegraphing a readiness to discuss a ceasefire in his nearly two-year war on Ukraine through diplomatic backchannels, The New York Times reported Saturday. Since at least September, "Putin has been signaling ... that he is open to a ceasefire that freezes the fighting along the current lines," The New York Times wrote. It cited two former senior Russian officials close to the Kremlin and U.S. and international officials who have received the message from Moscow’s envoys. The New York Times said U.S. officials previously received never-before-reported overtures from the Kremlin for a truce in September 2022, as Kyiv was recapturing swathes of its territory in the northeast in an embarrassment for Moscow. At the time, Putin made it clear that he was happy with the amount of territory his troops had captured, the newspaper wrote.

Source: New York Times December 24, 2023 01:13 UTC