Putin's demands to Ukraine underscore a position the West has always suspected: No compromise

If Ukraine's Zelenskyy thought his drone strike on Russian air bases would yield a Kremlin compromise, Moscow issued its response in black and white: no chance.

If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thought that his spectacular drone strike on Russian air bases would yield a Kremlin compromise, Russia issued its blunt response in black and white: no chance.

After waiting for weeks for Moscow to present its ceasefire demands in writing, the West finally got them Monday with a memorandum issued by Russian envoys in Istanbul.

Few analysts really believed that Ukraine’s “Spiderweb” plot would gain immediate concessions from a stubborn President Vladimir Putin. And so it was.

The memorandum, published in full by the Russian state news agency Tass, was less of a peace plan and more a demand for Ukraine to surrender, defang its military and become a vassal of Moscow.

The conditions, which included Ukraine withdrawing from vast swaths of territory and fulfilling a list of Russian-set conditions, put down for the first time on paper what Ukraine and its allies have known since the beginning of this three-year-long war — that Putin and his forces “are going to have to kill their way out of this war,” a Western official with knowledge of the talks told NBC News on Tuesday, predicting “more violence.”