Putin twists Kazakhstan's call to freeze war for his own agenda, ISW says
Russian President Vladimir Putin (photo: Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin likely used his meeting with Kazakhstan's president to justify continuing the war against Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Tokayev's proposal
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Omsk during the Russia-Kazakhstan Forum on Interregional Cooperation on July 25.
During the meeting, Tokayev said many people struggle to understand the origins of Russia's war against Ukraine. He urged Moscow and Kyiv to freeze the current front line and return to negotiations based on the Istanbul format.
Putin did not respond to those remarks during the public portion of the meeting.
Kremlin's response
Later, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Putin had given Tokayev a detailed explanation of the war and said freezing the current front line was impossible because Russia must achieve its objectives on the battlefield.
Peskov also repeated the Kremlin's standard talking point that the fighting could end by the end of today if Ukraine were to make the appropriate decisions.
The ISW noted that Russian officials have consistently called on Ukraine to surrender to Moscow's maximalist demands.
Those demands include handing over the entirety of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions before peace talks even begin—talks that, moreover, offer no guarantee of producing a meaningful peace agreement.
Who was actual recipient of that message
ISW analysts pointed to the broader context behind the Kremlin's rejection. Putin sees declining approval and trust ratings, mounting economic challenges, and growing battlefield losses for only limited territorial gains in Ukraine, while largely waging the war in the same way he has since 2022.
According to the ISW, the Kremlin continues signaling to the Russian public that they should be prepared to bear the costs of a prolonged war against Ukraine. Putin's meeting with Tokayev likely served as a convenient platform for Moscow to once again reinforce that message.
As previously reported, Tokayev proposed freezing the war and returning to an Istanbul Formula 2.0 during his meeting with Putin in Omsk on July 25. He described the proposal as his personal opinion, saying he had allegedly been approached about acting as a mediator.
Ukraine responded positively to the proposal. Acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called Tokayev's appeal realistic, timely, and wise, noting that Kyiv had already proposed halting the war along the current front line and moving to diplomacy.
