Last week, news about the conflict in Ukraine was dominated by the importance of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.

The Republican will take over at the White House in January after promising during the campaign to end the war within 24 hours of becoming president.

His statements on Ukraine and his so-called “America first” approach to foreign policy have led many commentators to suggest that Russia will withdraw its support from the country in the fight to repel its invading forces.

But experts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank say the indications are that the Kremlin is now trying to dictate the terms of possible “peace” negotiations with Ukraine before Trump takes office.

“The fact that the Kremlin is trying to set the terms of negotiations strongly suggests that Russia’s goals have not changed and still amount to the complete surrender of Ukraine,” the group’s analysts say.

“The Kremlin does not appear willing to make any more concessions to the incoming Trump administration than it has to the current administration.”

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s claims yesterday that “peace” can only be achieved if the West stops providing military aid to Ukraine are interpreted as Russia’s claim that the West must end all provisions of military aid to Ukraine as a precondition for peace. It was stated that it was continuing. negotiations.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov also said yesterday that the start of Trump’s presidency would not fundamentally change the US attitude towards Ukraine and that any proposals to freeze the front line would be “even worse” than the Minsk Agreements, which favored Russia after the initial invasion of Ukraine He claimed that he was. In 2014.

“Lavrov’s early rejection of the potential proposal to freeze the current front line shows that Russia is not interested in softening its approach or demands in the negotiations, and that it maintains Vladimir Putin’s clearly stated goal of completely surrendering Ukraine by June 2024.” analysts continue.

“Zakharova and Lavrov’s statements also undermine Putin’s recent efforts to drum up interest in his desire to ‘restore’ US-Russia relations with the new US presidential administration, and instead suggest that Putin likely assumes the Trump administration will respect the Kremlin’s interests .” and preferences for which the Kremlin does not offer any concessions or benefits in return.”