Putin ready to end Ukraine war if Russia can keep land it now controls: report

Russian President Vladimir Putin will halt the war in Ukraine if Russia is allowed to keep the four regions it has taken control of, multiple key Kremlin sources say.

The oppressive dictator believes that any new substantial gains by Russia will require another major — and highly unpopular — mandatory draft, and that the Russian people can be sold on the idea that the Motherland has already taken back enough territory, Reuters said.

“Putin can fight for as long as it takes, but Putin is also ready for a cease-fire -– to freeze the war,” said a source, who has worked with the Russian leader and been privy to high-level Kremlin discussions.

One of the outlet’s sources added, “Putin will say that we won, that NATO attacked us and we kept our sovereignty, that we have a land corridor to Crimea, which is true.’’

Russia has overtaken large swaths of the Ukraine regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson during the conflict, which started in February 2022.

That land would stay with Russia under Putin’s reported cease-fire plan.

Putin invaded Ukraine reportedly because his goal was to reunite at least part of the former Soviet Union, which was dissolved in 1991 and allowed Ukraine and some of Russia’s other former USSR republics to become independent nations.

But his current notion — to be allowed to keep the areas of Ukraine that Russia now controls as part of a cease-fire deal — would likely garner serious opposition from Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky.

Zelensky has vowed not to relinquish any territory to Russia and even retake Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

After launching a remarkable initial defense against its invaders, Ukrainian forces have struggled to hold on to some territory in recent months, with Zelensky blaming a waning seeming lack of support by allies such as the US.

The US Congress last month finally OK’d a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, but the weapons and ammunition have yet to be delivered.