Analysis: Ukraine is drowning without waving its arms
During Volodymyr Zelenskyi's annual press conference that was held this week, things broke down almost immediately and the president was angry, short in tone and avoided answering certain questions, Sydsvenskan's Kalle Kniivilä writes in an analysis.
"The lack of success at the front means that Zelenskyi is under heavy pressure, it is clearly noticeable," he writes.
In CNN, Nick Paton Walsh makes a similar analysis.
The message that Ukraine really needs to get out is how "incredibly dark the situation at the front is". Despite that, the president seems unable to avoid instead "pointing out past successes and future goals", writes Walsh.
"Ukraine finds it difficult to say outright how badly the war is going", he writes, and believes that the country is "drowning without waving its arms".
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Russian invasionRussian reactions
Sources: Putin seeks ceasefire - wants to freeze the conflict
Vladimir Putin is open to a ceasefire that freezes the conflict with Ukraine along the current battle lines, writes the New York Times.
The Russian president is said to have conveyed the message to counterparties via intermediaries, some of whom have now spoken to the newspaper.
- They say they are ready for a truce. They want to stay where they are on the battlefield, says one of the sources.
Ukraine has previously said that it is not prepared to end the war unless all areas occupied by Russia are liberated.
Kremlin spokesman Dimitriy Peskov tells the New York Times that the newspaper's information is incorrect.
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Russian invasionRussian reactions
Peskov: Data on ceasefire "incorrect"
Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov refutes the New York Times' report that the Russian president has sent out probers for a ceasefire with Ukraine.
After declining an interview request, Peskov told the newspaper in a voice message that "the conceptual theses you have put forward are incorrect" and that Russia's original goal of the war has not changed.
- Putin is really ready for talks, he has said that. Russia remains ready, but exclusively for the fulfillment of its own goals.
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Russian invasionRussian reactions
Expert: Tactic from Putin - wants to point to Ukrainian reluctance
It is no coincidence that the information that Vladimir Putin is open to a ceasefire on the current front lines comes at this moment. This is what Hugo von Essen, analyst at the Center for Eastern European Studies, told Dagens Nyheter.
He sees it as a purely tactical move. According to von Essen, the aim is for people to see that Russia is ready for negotiations, while the country can point to Ukraine and claim that they have "unrealistic demands".
- There is a doomsday narrative in the West that Ukraine has failed with its counter-offensive during the year.
Martin Kragh at the Center for Eastern European Studies at the Foreign Policy Institute emphasizes the importance of source criticism and writes that an agreement with Putin cannot be "attributed any value".
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