Insider says:

Putin open to dialog with Trump on ceasefire

According to insiders, Russian head of state Vladimir Putin is open to talks with future US President Donald Trump about a ceasefire in Ukraine. Of course, the Kremlin leader also has several conditions.

Putin is ruling out major territorial concessions and is insisting that Ukraine give up its NATO membership ambitions, according to five people familiar with the deliberations, according to the Reuters news agency. The Kremlin could largely agree to a freeze in the conflict along the front lines - including security guarantees for Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte with the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Selenskyj(Bild: AP)

However, the Kremlin immediately rejected speculation about a possible freeze in the conflict. "The President has already said that freezing this conflict is not an option for us," said Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a press briefing. Moscow still wants to achieve its war aims.

Room for negotiation on annexed territories
There may be room for negotiation over the exact division of the four eastern regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, said three of the insiders. The Western allies of the government in Kiev, including Austria, repeatedly emphasize that there can be no peace without the participation of the government in Kiev.

The government in Vienna recently increased aid for Ukraine by a further eight million euros from the Foreign Disaster Fund. Refugee coordinator Andreas Achrainer recently announced that around 2,000 refugees a month are currently arriving in Austria from Ukraine as the third winter of war approaches.