US State Department Believes Putin Won't Agree to Ceasefire in Ukraine before US Elections

Washington is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not agree to a truce in Ukraine before the presidential elections in the United States, which will be held in November 2024.

As reported by Reuters, at a briefing after the meeting of foreign ministers of NATO member countries in Brussels, an American official said that the Alliance confirmed its support for Ukraine because there is an awareness that a peace agreement next year is unlikely.

"My expectation is that Putin won't make a peace or a meaningful peace before he sees the result of our election," said the official.

Asked if they were expressing a personal opinion or the position of the US government, the official said it was a "widely shared premise".

"That was the context in which the allies all expressed strong support for Ukraine," they added.

Currently, there is a fear that the return of former president Donald Trump to the White House may undermine the West's support for Ukraine in the war initiated by Russia.

The anonymous representative of the State Department did not mention Trump's name and did not indicate how the election result could affect support for Ukraine.

Earlier, Bild, citing an anonymous source, reported that Germany and the USA want to force Ukraine to negotiate with Russia, using restrictions on the supply of weapons as a lever.

Also, the article claimed, Berlin and Washington are considering the option of freezing the war, as a result of which the contact line will become "a new quasi-border between Ukraine and Russia."

Germany and the US refuted the article written by Bild journalist Julian Röpcke about an alleged "secret plan" which would push Ukraine to start negotiations with Russia in order to end the full-scale war.

At the beginning of November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that no one is pressuring him to force Kyiv to negotiate with Russia.