Russia will not accept Turkey’s proposal to end fighting in Ukraine after nearly 1,000 days of war, the Kremlin said Monday, amid concerns over a long-awaited ceasefire seemed unrealistic is looming on the horizon with a new American presidency. .

Bloomberg reported Sunday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was preparing to present to G20 leaders a plan to freeze the war in Ukraine along the front lines that currently snake hundreds of kilometers across the country. The Turkish leader would present his plans at the Rio de Janeiro summit on Monday, the outlet reported.

“The option of freezing the military conflict line is a priori unacceptable for the Russian side,” the Kremlin spokesperson said. Dmitry Peskov said Monday, in response to the report.

Turkey, a long-standing institution NATO The MP, has maintained his ties with Russia through a delicate balancing act. Ankara has presented itself as a peacemaker, signaling support for Ukraine’s NATO bid while keeping lines of communication open with Moscow and expressing interest in joining the currently-led BRICS group of countries. by Russia.

Türkiye occupies a strategic position in southern Ukraine, controlling access to the Black Sea via the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. This has limited Russia’s ability to move submarines and warships in and out of the Black Sea.

Unlike other NATO leaders, Erdogan met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the largest land war Europe has seen since World War II. Erdogan described his relationship with the Kremlin leader as being based on “common understanding, mutual trust and respect.”

Putin did not discuss the proposal with Erdogan, Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin “does not yet have information on this.” News week contacted the Turkish presidential office for comment via email.

The Russian leader will not budge on the conditions he set earlier this year for a ceasefire, Peskov said in comments reported by Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Last June, Putin said he would consider a ceasefire or freeze in the war in Ukraine if kyiv abandoned its hopes of joining NATO and withdrew its troops from areas of Ukraine that Russia said it had. annexed.

Moscow has controlled Crimea, south of mainland Ukraine, since 2014, and declared in September 2022 that it had annexed the Donetsk and Luhansk regions collectively known as Donbass, as well as the southern Ukraine regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

The Kremlin’s influence over these regions is not internationally recognized. Kyiv promised to get them back.

The Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyinsisted that kyiv must join NATO as soon as possible and refused to cede territory to Moscow.

Attitudes appear to be changing around ceasefire as preparations for presidential election Donald Trump to get back into the Oval Office, start. Trump has pledged to turn off the spigot of military aid to Ukraine – on which kyiv depends – and end the war within a day.

European officials fear this means the president-elect will strike a deal with the Kremlin that would go against the best interests of NATO’s eastern flank and Ukraine itself.

A popular idea among officials in the Trump camp could see Ukraine pledging not to join NATO for at least 20 years, while Washington continues to funnel weapons to the country to deter Russia from launching new attacks. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

The conflict would be frozen, with Russia retaining its grip on about a fifth of Ukraine. A demilitarized zone would mark kyiv and Moscow’s control over the current front lines, likely patrolled by European forces.

Erdogan will propose to Ukraine to delay negotiations on its accession to NATO for at least a decade, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous people briefed on the president’s thinking. The plan will include a demilitarized zone in eastern Ukraine, where international troops could be deployed, according to the report.

Contrary to the stance taken by many Western NATO leaders, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Putin late last week for the first time in about two years.

“Russia must show its willingness to negotiate with Ukraine, with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” Scholz said following the call. According to a Kremlin statement, the German leader had requested this telephone conversation, which was criticized by several NATO countries.

Two unnamed European officials told Bloomberg there was a growing feeling that Ukraine’s Zelensky should negotiate with Putin as the war drags on. Russia has steadily gained ground in eastern Ukraine since the start of the year, as Moscow and kyiv looked for ways to replenish their depleted forces on the front lines.