On Feb. 16, Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Russia has adjusted its approach to potential talks with Ukraine because Ukraine allegedly has a "deficit" of sovereignty and that Kyiv's decision not to sign the peace agreement that was discussed in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 shows that Russia cannot trust Ukraine's word. Moscow has repeatedly claimed that the West forced Ukraine to walk away from the Istanbul agreement and that Ukraine therefore lacks sovereignty.
Peskov also continued the Kremlin's longstanding effort to shift the blame for Russia's full-scale invasion onto Ukraine, claiming that Ukraine would be "intact," that the Ukrainian government would not have "abused" Russians in eastern Ukraine, that there would have been no "civil war," and that Russians in eastern Ukraine would have had "no desire...to separate from Ukraine" if Ukraine had fulfilled the terms of the Minsk agreements.
State-controlled Russian media used a recent interview with Kremlin-linked former Ukrainian parliamentary deputy Viktor Medvedchuk to further propagate false narratives about the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
These cast doubt on Russia's sincerity in negotiating a settlement in the ongoing war and indicate that Moscow is preparing to violate any agreement on the grounds that the Ukrainian leadership lacks the legal right to conclude it. At the same time, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is attempting to position the country as a global power comparable to the United States and the successor to the Soviet Union as a "superpower," as seen in Trump's recent invitation to participate in the Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Developments at the frontlines also suggest that Russia is not genuinely interested in implementing peace agreements. It is focusing its efforts on seizing the key cities remaining under Ukrainian control in Donetsk Oblast. Kostyantynivka, Druzhkivka, Slovyansk, and Kramatorsk, the so-called "fortress belt," serve as the backbone of Ukraine's defense in Donbas.
The Russian military command reportedly redeployed additional elements of the Southern Military District's (SMD) 8th Combined Arms Army (CAA) to the Toretsk and eastern Pokrovsk directions, further indicating that the Russian military command intends to prioritize putting pressure on Kostyantynivka – the southernmost point of Ukraine's "fortress belt" – in 2025.