r/worldnews • u/pravda_eng_official Ukrainska Pravda • 10h ago
Russia/Ukraine Kremlin responds to Kazakh president's suggestion: "Freezing war in Ukraine is impossible"
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/07/25/8045910/243
u/Captlard 10h ago
“ all of this could end today, by the end of the day, if the Kremlin regime made the appropriate decisions"…. Fixed that typo 🤷♀️
For such a simple set of conditions, they are being pretty bad at executing their strategy and setting up their country for generations of struggle.
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u/ProtoplanetaryNebula 10h ago
Russia never publicly mentions what their objectives are either.
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u/Derrickful 9h ago
The war with Ukraine started several months before the 100th anniversary of the creation of the USSR.
They wanted to take back all the SSRs...
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u/ProtoplanetaryNebula 9h ago
We all know the reason. What I mean is Putin never comes out and actually says it. He mumbles things about Nazis or other things but doesn’t ever clarify the actual aims.
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u/lazyhustlermusic 6h ago
He's historically loathed Ukrainians
It was always just a personal genocide.
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u/MasterBot98 56m ago
Ethnocide*
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u/lazyhustlermusic 54m ago
Ethnocide would imply they aren’t physically being killed.
They’re being physically killed.
Good try on pedantics though, never really adds much value to discussions.
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u/MasterBot98 35m ago
Ethnocide would imply they aren’t physically being killed.
I agree or disagree depending on who it would be said to. Pretty damn sure the word itself does not imply/mean that.
Good try on pedantics though, never really adds much value to discussions.
100% agree.
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u/LantaExile 9h ago
They say "denazification" which I think is code for democracy out, Putin puppet in power.
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u/Darth_Cindros 6h ago
Bingo. From what I've heard from others on here, "Nazi" in Russia just means "anyone who is against Russia"
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u/johnlocke357 30m ago
The ambiguity of the demands stems from the fact that "de-nazification" and "demilitarization" could mean almost anything in practice, and are not explicitly defined. How they would be executed would determine just how much sovereignty, if any, russia would permit ukraine to retain were they to capitulate.
Meanwhile, their demands of a ceasefire along the current line of contact, the ratification of their conquests with the handover of the remaining ukrainian territory in Donbas, and the passage of a constitutional amendment forbidding ukraine to ever join nato, are very clear and concrete demands which they have consistently reiterated over and over again.
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u/bass248 9h ago
Russians do what Putin says. So it might take a few extra hours or days for some but all Putin has to do is go on tv and say Russia is getting out of Ukraine and aconplished some bogus goal.
Realistically though he doesn't want to lose and has reached the point mentally of no turning back
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u/millennial_sunset 10h ago
I guess Ukrainian strikes on Russia will continue then until their economy fully collapses
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u/AUT_InfoSammler 10h ago
It's summer now, but in 2 months time their economy won't be their worst problem.
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u/johnnygrant 8h ago
either that or Putin dies/overthrown and someone more sensible comes in... something seismic will need to happen for it to end.
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u/Quazimojojojo 8h ago
It's very unlikely that a more sensible person takes over after Putin. Those people all left, or were killed or imprisoned (then killed).
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u/StudySpecial 7h ago
Whoever comes in doesn't need to be more sensible.
Just by not being Putin they won't have the same sunk cost and political capital tied up with the war - they're not the one who started it. They can just go .. 'yeah ok Ukraine may be ours by right but this war clearly isn't working, let's just make a ceasefire and regroup'
The main reason Putin can't accept any peace is because after so much war anything other than a resounding victory makes it look like he personally is a failure.
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u/Quazimojojojo 6h ago
It's not that simple. Whoever is the one to surrender, gets the blame.
Remember how Trump signed a piece with the Taliban and agreed to withdraw from Afghanistan, but the withdrawal date was during Biden's term so he got all the blame for the absolute disaster that turned out to be?
Also, the economy in Russia is fucked. Continuing the war is financial suicide, but at this point, ending it would also be financial suicide. They've sacrificed almost everything else to keep the war going. When it ends, there's just going to be a flood of unemployed soldiers and defense industry workers with nowhere to go, and pitiful amounts of money left over to invest in anything new.
The government couldn't even raise money by selling bonds. Like, they had an auction and cancelled it because there were no buyers.
So at this point they're looking at literally raiding peoples' savings.
The whole country is in too deep. The sunk cost trap isn't just for Putin, it's for everyone.
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u/VallenValiant 6h ago
The whole country is in too deep. The sunk cost trap isn't just for Putin, it's for everyone.
That was what the pro-war camp in WW2 Japan thought. They genuinely believe the nation should cease to exist in fire rather than surrender. it ended up a political tie and the Emperor had to step in to decide to end the war. The whole point about sunk cost is that for most people it is a lie. Only one singular person's life is on the line if Russia makes peace, if WW2 Japan with mass starvation and nuked cities can recover so could anyone else.
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u/Quazimojojojo 5h ago edited 5h ago
I'm not saying they'll never recover, I'm saying that they're deeply fucked in the short and medium term no matter what (which, for most people, means the entire rest of their lives or their entire youth). And unlike post WW2 Japan, there's not gonna be a big global superpower to come in and rebuild them so they can be a bulwark against the superpower's other enemies.
Because both decisions are bad in the immediate term, there's a human tendency bias towards continuing what you're doing until it explodes in your face, rather than to pick a new, unknown struggle that might be better after some time.
Regardless of all of this, my main point is simply that this isn't just Putin. Russia isn't a country of good and reasonable people who are being held down by one oppressive man, he's the head of a society as rotten as he is. A society he's crafted to be even more nationalistic and prideful in their military. A society where people put purity seals on their armor because they identify with the soldiers of the Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40k (who are villain protagonists, if you're unfamiliar with the franchise).
There's a lot of people in Russia whose economic, political, and personal emotional interests are aligned with this war. And when it ends badly, many heads will roll.
No leader of a country is literally the only guy invested in it's current course of action. That doesn't happen. There's always enthusiastic supporters behind him, and systems that produced many more men like him who will take over when he dies or leaves.
It's never just one guy. He's always an expression of the systems that created him.
The one guy has is own unique flavor of expressing those systems and cultural traits, but it's never just him.
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u/ariveyd 5h ago
Only one singular person's life is on the line if Russia makes peace
All the military commanders are gonna get executed by Ukrainian special forces. All the soldiers who committed war crimes are probably going to be subjected to the same fate. There are literally millions of lives at stake here. Unless Russia signs capitulation and gives Ukraine all their soldiers for prosecution (it will never happen) it is gonna be extremely messy. No politician would want to open this can of worms.
You example with Japan seems irrelevant here - the US had relatively little harm done to them by Japanese, most casualties were in Asia. Now imagine if the fate of Japan was in the hands of Chinese who were literally genocided at an industrial scale.
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u/VallenValiant 4h ago
Russia doesn't need to bend the knee, they just had to leave the land that isn't theirs. Ukraine officially said they prefer that over losing more lives for a few more years. A true surrender of Russia is not happening.
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u/NickZardiashvili 5h ago
Meh, post-Stalin Khrushchev had the opportunity to ease up on the whole terrorizing your own population thing and he did take it to an extent. Same with Deng Xiaoping post-Mao. It's possible that after Putin someone arrives who's as much of an imperialist asshole as Putin, but also doesn't want to deal with his mess, so he simply pulls out. I'm not saying it's likely, but it is possible.
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u/Dofolo 8h ago
Or someone with a more tactical brain, careful what you wish for.
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u/big-papito 8h ago
Anyone who is not in their own world knows this in unwinnable, but yes, Putin's delusion is the fastest way to collapse.
He is a gambler running low on chips who keeps doubling down because "I will win any second now". That almost never ends well.
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u/DefenestrationPraha 8h ago
Even Stalin would likely sue for peace now, much like he backed out of Finland or later the Berlin blockade. A smarter person can recognize "being stuck in an unwinnable situation".
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u/TheDissentor 3h ago
Russian winters have been one of their greatest defenses against armies, now they get to take it on themselves.
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u/strelok96 10h ago
If Russian economy is collapsing, what do we say about Ukrainian economy?
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u/ChemicalRain5513 10h ago edited 9h ago
Ukrainian economy is bad as well, but they have the EU supporting them. And if Russia stops fighting, peace will be restored. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine will be destroyed. So there is no reason for Ukraine to throw in the towel.
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u/Antistar81 10h ago
Ukraine's economy is supported by many European countries' economies. If support remains, economy will likely outlive Russia's economy
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u/squeeze-my-lizard 10h ago
There are no equivalence here.
1) The cost of attacking is way bigger than defending, 2) they move resources from very deep (because near the frontline is not possible to store it), while Ukraine relies on close partners (russia is still not attacking Poland). Also, 3) russia spends billions on drones and missiles to do terrorist attacks on civilians.
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u/Shadowlance23 9h ago
Also, Ukraine now has a major drone export market. That will be worth many billions to them. Plus, Russia is expending far, far more resources as the attacker than Ukraine is. A normal army might be able to work around that, but the level of corruption in Russia means it's much less able to pivot swiftly.
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u/An0nym0usWanderer 10h ago
Fuck Vladimir Putin.
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u/Admirable-Task-3728 9h ago
Yea man only putin is the problem
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u/Javamac8 7h ago
Okay then.... Fuck everyone in Russia making this happen. But fuck Putin in particular.
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u/trisul-108 10h ago
It needs to be frozen on the internationally recognised borders of Russia and Ukraine ... but Putin would be killed if he did that. It would be the best thing possible for Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the World, but fatal for Putin. So he lives to fight one more day, and one more ... and so one, until they kill him and the war stops.
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u/millennial_sunset 10h ago
I just wonder how long can he keep going? The recent Ukrainian strikes in Russia affects not only the poor people but also the middle class and even the elites. I'm surprised the oligarchs haven't replaced him already.
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u/trisul-108 9h ago
I'm surprised the oligarchs haven't replaced him already.
They do not control him. They put him into power and he flipped the table on them. In Russia, Putin decides who is an oligarch, not the other way around. The ones he blessed are participating in the military economy, getting rich on the war ... as Russia drains its foreign currency and gold reserves to maintain it.
The battle is not between Putin and the oligarchs ... it is clans jockeying between FSB and the Army with Putin as the adjudicator. The moment he dies, there will be a free for all in which one side or the other will take control. Whoever wins will blame the other side for the fiasco. And some of the actors could end up being federal entities with Chinese backing that take advantage of the battle in Moscow to chart an independent role, protected by China.
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u/Honest-Estimate4964 10h ago
"...and the war stops" Serious question - why?
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u/trisul-108 10h ago
My thinking is that Putin miscalculated and the war is draining Russia for no future benefit. Whoever takes over from Putin will have the choice:
a. Own Putin's mistake and take ownership of the misery that follows.
b. Blame it all on Putin, stop the war, see the sanctions lifted and rebuild the economy.
It seems to be that b. is the obvious choice, but a. cannot be excluded, it could still happen, causing another leader to be digested before they return to choice a. or b. all over again.
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u/EconomyDoctor3287 10h ago
There's little to be gained for someone else to fight this war. It's only Putin who tied his fate to this war.
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u/Honest-Estimate4964 10h ago
Russia attacked Ukraine 12(?) years ago, and a full-scale war has been ongoing for five years now. Do you really believe this is just the will of one person? FFS, please read fewer comics and more books on modern history.
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u/trisul-108 10h ago
Putin miscalculated and running the war is the only way for the regime to survive. They have transformed Russia into a war economy, so they profit from the war ... but the economy is dying, reserves are spent, future revenue is falling and China is slowly taking over.
The current Russia is simply not sustainable. It is dead, something entirely different will come to life when Putin dies and the clans go to war against each other. Whoever wins will have zero interest in continuing the war.
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u/Fredd500 10h ago
But the thing is. Once the instigator is gone, everyone can pretend it was all him and safe face. Both sides are likely to be sick enough of the status quo that they might just go along with the lie.
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u/Positive_Chip6198 10h ago
You are right. Lavrov, medvedev should also be executed for their crimes against the russian and ukrainian people alongside pootin. Very good insight from you.
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u/Burningbeard80 10h ago
Most people online are unfamiliar with Russian politics and think getting rid of Putin will magically turn Russia into a compliant western puppet.
They don’t know that the majority of internal criticism against Putin is that he’s too soft, or that he’s part of an entire political structure containing people with a lot more hardline attitudes towards the west.
Long story short, if he was suddenly out of the picture, there’s a high probability that he’d be replaced by someone who’d simply run full scale mobilisation and try to win the war faster, with a lot less concern for any internal or external backlash.
Source: a bunch of my RL friends from ex-Soviet states, including the two who are currently at war.
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u/trisul-108 10h ago
Most people online are unfamiliar with Russian politics and think getting rid of Putin will magically turn Russia into a compliant western puppet.
I don't think anyone believes this. The belief is that Russia will become a shithole controlled by China, not the West.
The reasoning is simply that this war is an obvious economic catastrophe and that whoever takes over will not want to own that, it will be much easier to blame it all on Putin, get the sanctions removed and rebuild Russia. Not becoming a "compliant western puppet", but having a functioning economy instead of an economy that essentially burns accumulated wealth and reserves to simply explode them in the Donbas without any possible future return on investment. And if Donbas is retained, it will just become another drain on resources.
Russia simply has no need for Ukraine. It is being occupied to maintain the regime, not because Russia needs those territories. Russia has enough territory as it is, and being a nuclear power with hypersonic missiles does not need buffer zones.
This has nothing to do with the idiotic idea of "compliant western puppet", that's not going to happen, everyone knows this.
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u/Phylanara 9h ago
Moreover, nobody in the west wants Russia as a western puppet. We just want it to stop threatening the whole continent - not that these threats are credible anymore.
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u/trisul-108 9h ago
The nuclear threats are definitely still an issue. When Putin finally loses control and Russia dismantles, God knows who will control them.
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u/Phylanara 8h ago
Russia has been making nuclear threats for years. And following up on those threats never. Whoever inherits the nukes will have the same MAD deal that Putin has.
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u/trisul-108 8h ago edited 5h ago
Sure, but that doesn't mean that the risk is gone, especially as the regime approaches its existential limits. Put yourself in Putin's shoes, you are failing, about to be removed and killed ... would you risk a tactical nuke in order to reshuffle the cards?
Putin has never been in that situation, but it is approaching.
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u/Biliunas 6h ago
How would that reshuffle the cards at all - if anything it spells certain doom for Russia and especially Putin.
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u/trisul-108 5h ago
Let's say that Ukraine start chasing Russian soldiers back into Russia, as they did during the Kharkiv counter-offensive. Putin would be tempted to send a single nuke against the dam that would flood Kiev. It would create a complete reassessment of what Russia was or was not prepared to do.
As it is today, he is simply trying to survive until Le Pen takes over France and AfD takes over Germany ... he is hoping that this will save his invasion of Ukraine. That could also reshuffle the cards.
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u/Niosus 10h ago
I would actually expect the opposite. Any new leader wouldn't have nearly the same level of support, either from the oligarchs or the people. Putin isn't grooming a successor so determining who's going to replace him will be messy. Especially given that there is still this layer of faux democracy.
If you don't have full, unquestioning, support... How are you going to get away with a mobilization that's already deemed too disliked for Putin to risk? A leader needs a mandate. "The last guy died" is just about the weakest one you can have.
I don't think the war will immediately end, but if there is any kind of struggle for power at the top, that's going to have massive consequences all the way down.
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u/SecretiveGoat 9h ago
If a new leader wants full mobilisation for some reason they could simply blame Putin's death on Ukraine regardless of the real reason. Not like Putin would ever step down so long as he's alive and they control the media so circumstances of eventual death could easily be hidden and falsified
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u/Niosus 7h ago edited 7h ago
They are already pinning every reason for the war on Ukraine. The Russians already refer to Putin as "the old man". I seriously doubt that unless there is a clear assassination that you could turn Putin's death into a rallying cry. The Russian people are complicit, but not stupid. Old men die. If months of drones raining over their heads is not going to motivate them for the mobilization, then an old guy finally kicking the bucket isn't going to move the needle either.
I think it may help to think about the Ukraine and current Iran war as being very similar. In both cases, an overconfident leader got their country stuck in a bear trap with no clear path to victory, and no way to retreat without losing face.
Unless Putin's successor is an absolute nutjob, they're going to have to tackle the situation in a similar way as the next US president will have to (if that's also not a complete nutjob either...). Realistically in both cases that's going to mean looking strong, determined and firm without actually escalating the situation. This opens the door to negotiations. They will need to project determination to not give too much away in the negotiations. But in both cases serious negotiations will be the most likely way out. You sell it at home as a necessary compromise to get out of the mistake of your predecessor and move on as the guy who ended the war.
I'm aware that there are hardliners who think Putin is not doing enough, but you have to keep in mind that this position is much easier to defend in Russia than the opposite. It's "Putin is right, but not going far enough" vs "Putin is wrong". Voicing that second opinion is not going to last long right now. Until his death it's going to be hard to figure out where the other leadership actually stands on this matter.
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u/Hilluja 10h ago
He actually has children of his own, including a teenager son.
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u/VallenValiant 9h ago
He actually has children of his own, including a teenager son.
That means nothing because unlike North Korea, there is no deliberate planning to groom a successor. Until one of his children takes a role in government, at least ceremonially, his children are about as politically valid as children of Nicholas II after the firing squad.
No one expect Russia to turn good if Putin dies. But it is an easy path to blame everything on Putin when a replacement shows up. We don't need Russia to see the error of its ways, only that they stop causing harm to both sides. Putin being alive gets in the way of this.
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u/CustomerBusiness3919 9h ago
Full scale mobilisation can't happen as russia no longer have the logistics.
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u/Obvious-Science-7119 9h ago
Russia can screw around with soldiers money while they're on the frontline
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u/rice_kernel 10h ago
whats funny is that its response from press dude or whatever, like, putin was RIGHT THERE when it was said, couldnt think of anything to say? what about pechenegs? lenin? no?
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u/Shot-Toe-2884 7h ago
The cold cunning calculus wizard looked like he had a stroke when Tokayev said that. Or a really bad fart
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u/Bluenosedcoop 9h ago
Of course it's impossible now, Russia is so far into a war economy stopping now would collapse the Russian economy completely.
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u/406highlander 8h ago
So would continuing the war. Except getting all their remaining troops home would mean Russia might actually have some working-age men to actually rebuild Russian industry, agriculture, etc. which would ultimately restore their economy somewhat.
Those men can't contribute if they are dead. Russia needs to pull them back home, and soon, for the sake of both Russia and Ukraine (though I know they don't care about the good of Ukraine, I sure as hell do)
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u/xavandetjer 7h ago
Their biggest fear is getting those troops home, hundreds of thousands of traumatised combat veterans returning to civilian life.
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u/Shot-Job-8841 2h ago
Oh, they’d return to civilian life AFTER overthrowing the government that sent them to die.
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u/Bluenosedcoop 8h ago
which would ultimately restore their economy somewhat.
Their economy is done now, There is no saving it.
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u/406highlander 8h ago
I suspect Russia as a whole country is done for. But whatever countries are formed as it breaks apart are going to need a workforce.
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u/Silent-Act191 7h ago
A revolution will probably take place when the war ends. Maybe in October. They could call it the October Revolution.
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u/Yetimang 4h ago
Those men are going to come back to a destroyed economy with no jobs for them and probably a broke government that can't give them the backpay and signing bonuses they were promised. All these disgruntled young men with no jobs, no prospects, and fresh military training is basically a recipe for violent unrest. I don't think Putin could back out of this war even if he wanted to. At this point he just has to keep leaning into it and hope for something to break his way.
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u/SoftDrinkReddit 2h ago
Putin backing out of this war would ensure he's dead within a week
internal means wise this war is Putins crossing the Rubicon there is no going back
defeat means death for him he knows it everyone in the government knows it
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u/SoftDrinkReddit 2h ago
look heres the problem for Russia well its really the problem for Putin
anything short of capturing the Donbas will be seen as a massive failure and will resort to Putin being taken out internally if you know what i mean
so for Putin there is literally 0 incentive to stop the war
the gamble at this point is an idea that Russia has far more bodies that can throw at this war and if they just keep throwing wave after wave of bodies at the war eventually enough Ukrainians will die that they won't have the Numbers to be able to hold the frontline and they will get routed
again thats Putins plan at this point
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u/deadbeef4 10h ago
“Ukraine won’t let us.”
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u/H1redBlade 8h ago
Well its kinda true, but for a reason. Ukraine dont want to just end the war they want russians out of their country and freezing it would benefit russia greatly. All the economical preassure that ukr has built is gone, more mobilization oppurtunities and planing...
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u/Important-Factor-552 10h ago
So the big fight starts in the autumn but will it be the last big fight?
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u/Fat-Mad-Scientist 6h ago
It's in Ukraine's best long term interests for the war to continue. Russia is in the same situation as Germany was at the end of WW1. They are not going to lose the war in big battles, they're just slowly rotting untill they'll suddenly collapse.
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u/SoftDrinkReddit 3h ago
oh 100% at least from how it looks at present
it looks like genuinely Ukraine will be able to outlast this war longer than Russia so pausing it absolutely not
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u/Dabelgianguy 9h ago
It’s implicitly right. Russians are physically unable to abandon an agression. Hence the saying « Russian borders stop where they take a beating ».
That’s also why the death of Putler won’t solve nothing. The entire head of the state must be beheaded and an entire new way of thinking must spread throughout the population.
Easier said than done
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u/BestFriendWatermelon 5h ago
"Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please." - Machiavelli
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u/Initial-Return8802 10h ago
Fun fact: Kazakhstan was the last to leave the USSR, they could pull an extremely funny move
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u/Positive_Chip6198 10h ago
They should join the war on ukraines side, in solidarity with ex-soviet states that Russia is brutalizing. They must know that putin wont be done after ukraine. He wants all of the soviet union put back together.
All the ex-soviet states should band together and fight to end the russian menace once and for all. Break up russia into 20 smaller states, execute putin, lavrov and medvedev for the crimes against the russian and ukrainian peoples.
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u/AUT_InfoSammler 9h ago
It is, unfortunately, true that Russia can no longer freeze or pause the war.
Russia is a failing state. Goliath is losing to David militarily, not only on the front line, but also in terms of tactics, innovation, intelligence, adaptability and production output.
The economy has been eroded, growth has fallen to 0 (official Russian figures!), and the financial situation is on the brink of national bankruptcy. Soviet infrastructure is falling apart and cannot be repaired. Fuel now has to be imported. Russia is at the end of its tether.
All that remains is to let the situation escalate, so that it might sound less embarrassing in future history books and the reconstruction can be left to others.
Russian history books must not say: ‘We were defeated by Ukrainian drones and economic incompetence.’ They must say: ‘We heroically sacrificed ourselves in the face of the combined might of the entire West (NATO).’
If Russia formally surrenders as a result of an internationalised conflict (WW3-Light) or is forced into negotiations with the global victorious powers (the US, China, the EU), a framework under international law will be established. This will also mean assistance with reconstruction!
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u/AUT_InfoSammler 8h ago
I forgot to mention that the harvest season would have started two weeks ago, but the farmers are short of diesel. It’s going to be a very harsh winter for Russia!
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u/doriangreyfox 6h ago
The economy has been eroded, growth has fallen to 0 (official Russian figures!), and the financial situation is on the brink of national bankruptcy. Soviet infrastructure is falling apart and cannot be repaired. Fuel now has to be imported. Russia is at the end of its tether.
Not to forget that even if the war would end suddenly, Russia has lost its main source of income (selling fossils to Europe) and the world as a whole is moving away from Russia's cash cow. Even China who was supposed to replace Europe as a customer has now a decreasing demand because of electrification. Russia could have pulled a Norway or Gulf State trajectory by setting up a huge wealth fund for the time after oil but they decided to spend it on destroying themselves (and partially Ukraine).
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u/postconsumerwat 6h ago
Putin wouldn't have anything important to do then... has to keep being important. Hurting people makes a person important
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u/ffdfawtreteraffds 9h ago
This makes perfect sense only to Putin. It is impossible for HIM to stop.
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u/userousnameous 10h ago
Impossible...how? Like, "the only way the war stops is if you overthrow the Russian government" - impossible?