One of Vladimir Putin’s spy chiefs appears to be seeking to sideline Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of possible Ukraine war peace talks.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), said Russia was close to achieving its goals in Ukraine with Moscow holding what he said was the strategic initiative in all areas in the war.
His comments may be seen as a sign that Putin could now want a political solution to the war which has left hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers dead or wounded, with similarly high casualties among Ukrainian forces, and thousands of civilians killed.
Naryshkin also stressed that for Russia, Ukrainian President Mr Zelensky had lost legitimacy and “the ability to negotiate”.
However, Mr Zelensky is seen in the West as a world leader who rather than flee Kyiv when Russian troops marched on it in February 2022, stayed in the Ukrainian capital with his forces eventually forcing Putin’s army to retreat to the east of the country.
He is now involved in intense diplomacy ahead of possible peace talks when Donald Trump becomes president in January, having claimed he could end the war in a day.
Joe Biden’s outgoing administration, Britain, France and other allies are boosting support for Ukraine as it tries to stop Putin’s troops grabbing more land in coming weeks, having made more speedy advances in recent months.
“The situation on the front is not in Kyiv’s favour,” Naryshkin told Razvedchik, the official publication of the foreign intelligence agency.
“The strategic initiative in all areas belongs to us, we are close to achieving our goals, while the armed forces of Ukraine are on the verge of collapse.”
Russian forces are pushing along the frontline, with fierce fighting in the towns of Kurakhove and Toretsk in Ukraine’s east.
Mr Biden recently gave permission for long range missiles supplied by the US, and Britain, to be fired at military targets inside Russia, partly to help Ukrainian forces keep hold of a swathe of the Kursk region which they seized in a surprise attack in the summer.
Naryshkin, who heads the main successor organisation to the Soviet-era KGB’s First Chief Directorate, is one of the few senior Russian officials to have relatively regular contacts with senior US and Western officials.
Mr Zelensky on Monday made the case for a diplomatic settlement to the war and raised the idea of foreign troops being deployed in Ukraine until it could join the NATO military alliance.
Putin is reported to be open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.
The Russian president has said Russia should be left fully in control of four Ukrainian provinces in the east and south of the country that his troops partially control at the moment for a peace deal to be done.
