Russian President Vladimir Putin likely used his meeting with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to justify his refusal to freeze the front line in Ukraine and his decision to continue the war, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
According to Ukrinform, the assessment was made in an ISW report.
The report said Putin’s meeting with Tokayev took place in Omsk during the Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum. During the meeting, Tokayev claimed that it is difficult for many to understand the origin of the Russian war in Ukraine and called for Russia and Ukraine to freeze the frontline and return to Istanbul-format negotiations.
Putin did not respond to Tokayev during the public part of the meeting. However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Putin later gave Tokayev a detailed explanation of the war and said that freezing the front line was impossible because Russia must "achieve its battlefield objective."
Peskov repeated the Kremlin’s claims that hostilities could end "by the end of the day today" if Ukraine "makes the appropriate decisions."
