Putin ready for peace talks after huge Russian defeats in Ukraine

The Kremlin has said they are open to negotiations with Ukraine after initially vowing to take over the entire country. They downgraded their objectives to seizing the Donbas region after their troops were repelled near Kyiv. And the Kremlin has been increasingly vocal that it is ready to hold peace talks.But Western officials believe the war is going to descend into a ‘grind’, with neither side ‘particularly winning or particularly losing’.Sources believe Russia will try to cling on to Crimea as it is “held very dear to Russian hearts and for Putin.They added: “It is totemic and is home to the Black Sea. I expect that to be a significant barrier to the ultimate negotiated settlement.”Officials believe the number of Russian troops in Ukraine is now less than 100,000 – the force at the start of the invasion may have been as high as 190,000. Putin is more open to peace talks after huge military defeats in Kherson and Kharkiv (Image: GETTY)Ukraine has vowed to push Russian forces from its lands. Many defence analysts fear Winter conditions will see the speed of military operations slow down as lands become increasingly muddy.Colder conditions will also mean more soldiers wounded in the conflict will die, Western officials say.President Vodolymyr Zelensky said: ‘We will not allow Russia to wait it out, build up its forces and then start a new series of terror and global destabilisation.’Ukrainian forces recaptured the city of Kherson from Russian soldiers last week and are rumoured to be on the cusp of liberating settlements on the eastern bank of the region during a mass offensive.Losing the southern city is a major setback for Putin. Russia had declared it the centre of the illegally annexed Kherson region after a self-styled referendum in September. It was the only regional capital to be occupied since the invasion began in February.Western officials said on Tuesday: ‘We would just note that Russia’s increasing openness to negotiations is happening at a time when they have suffered some setbacks on the battlefield.’They added: ‘The pullback is a significant event in the course of the war and is a real blow for the political project which Putin claims is justifying the invasion.’The withdrawal took place six weeks after Putin claimed the annexation of Kherson and three other regions.’Western officials believe Ukrainian assessments that Russia only has a month’s worth of artillery ammunition left are ‘in the right ball park’.Ukrainian estimates that Russia has reduced its stock of Iskander cruise missiles to around 120 from around 900 pre-war, are also thought to be accurate, officials indicated.The official said they believed it will be very difficult for Ukraine to cross the Dnipro in large numbers due to the width of the river and Russian defences being established.Officials warned of a  ‘parity of forces’ in the conflict – meaning they are not expecting any huge strategic breakthroughs in the near future.Russian commanders had been planning the withdrawal from Kherson for weeks, they say.’We think that no-one is still particularly winning or particularly losing sufficiently that either side will want to really entertain peace talks, not until certainly from a Ukrainian point of view until the Russians actively start to withdraw,’ they added.In Luhansk, Kyiv’s forces are on the offensive and could become one of the most important battles of the war.’Russia has built substantial new defensive positions in the sector,’ western officials said.’This whole region could well become one of more important and dynamic sectors in the coming weeks.”If we take a big picture overall as we go into 2023, we are still expecting the grind. We are still expecting it to be largely static, and we still expect neither side to particularly win or lose, and really that extends all the way through 2023.’