Russian hardliners push for continued military action in Ukraine
While Russian President Vladimir Putin explores a potential peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine, hawkish anti-Western nationalists at home are waging a campaign to keep the conflict going.
“We surrender our weapons, we surrender our country!”, Pavel Gubarev, a pro-Moscow activist in part of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region controlled by Moscow, posted on Sunday, raging against the prospect of the conflict being “frozen” along current lines.
To someone brought up in the West, it might look at first sight as if Putin is under pressure.
However, the so-called ‘Z-patriots’ – named after a symbol Russian forces in Ukraine paint on their vehicles – must conform to certain rules and do not ultimately pose a threat to Putin, three people close to the Kremlin said. They will be expected to toe the line if and when the moment comes to make peace, the people said.
At the same time, Putin and his intelligence agencies do need to manage Russia’s hardcore nationalists to ensure they don’t disrupt his goals, the three people said.
Analysts say that by arguing for the war to continue, as U.S. President Donald Trump and some Western European leaders push for a deal, the Z-patriots can sometimes go too far for the Kremlin’s liking by riling up the public and creating expectations of a more ambitious battlefield campaign.
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“They are not all under full control,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center who has studied the Kremlin for years.
Stanovaya, whom the Russian authorities last year designated a “foreign agent,” noted that some Z-patriots have called on the Russian army to take the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Odesa and even attack Poland. Such targets go well beyond what Putin, who has claimed four Ukrainian regions as part of Russia – in addition to Crimea – has stated as Russia’s war aims.
“Their whipping up of people and pushing society to support a bigger military campaign is a hindrance and work goes on to get them to tone down what they are saying or put a sock in it because they stir up society when Putin needs to hold talks,” said Stanovaya.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Some of the Z-patriots – war bloggers or war correspondents – have half a million followers or more on the Telegram social media platform and are widely read inside Russia, including among the elite, abroad, and in Ukraine.
But they must tread carefully.
Nationalists who have crossed the Kremlin in the past ran into problems – notably rebellious Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and outspoken ultra-nationalist Igor Girkin. Prigozhin died in a plane crash and Girkin was jailed.
The Kremlin has rejected as an “absolute lie” the suggestion that Putin had Prigozhin killed in revenge for his mutiny. It says it does not interfere in court cases, something critics contest.
Analysts say the Z-patriots have been useful to the Kremlin, helping it build and maintain broad public support for the war for the last three years.
But Z-patriots who make too much of a fuss about any eventual peace deal risk being purged, said the three sources, who, like others in this story, spoke on condition of anonymity given the matter’s sensitivity.
One of the sources said the ultra-nationalists would quickly change their rhetoric once the Kremlin settles on a peace plan.
“It will be like a light switch is being flicked,” the source said.
Current position
Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but expectations for a major breakthrough were tempered due to the level of the delegations sent by both sides.
Recent peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were scheduled to take place in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 16, 2025. These were the first direct talks between the two countries in over three years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the talks, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy having challenged him to meet face-to-face in Turkey
Putin instead signed an order naming a delegation of four negotiators and four experts. The Russian delegation was led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who also led the Russian team in previous talks in 2022. Other members included Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, director of the Main Intelligence Directorate. The Kremlin described the delegation as technocrats and the talks as a “restart” of negotiations held in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also did not attend the talks in person, stating that he would only meet the Russian leader directly and that he knew “who makes the decisions in Russia,” a reference to Putin.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was sending a team that mirrored the level of the Russian delegation.
The Ukrainian delegation was headed by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and included Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak. Zelenskyy stated his reason for sending a delegation was to demonstrate to U.S. President Donald Trump that Ukraine wants to end the fighting and to attempt “at least the first steps toward de-escalation, the first steps toward ending the war — namely, a ceasefire.”
The context surrounding the talks included recent Russian military advances in eastern Ukraine, specifically the capture of settlements like Kotlyarivka, Myrolyubivka, and Mykhailovka in the Donetsk region, showing continued efforts to take control of the region even as talks were prepared.
There had been calls for a 30-day ceasefire ahead of the talks, notably from US President Donald Trump and backed by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and leaders from Poland, Germany, France, and Britain. Russia, however, insisted on peace talks without a prior ceasefire, accusing Ukraine of violating previous unilateral ceasefires.
Russia’s stated position going into the talks was described as taking a hard line. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated Russia would insist on the “denazification of the Kyiv regime,” which Moscow uses to describe Zelenskyy’s removal, and recognition of “current realities on the ground,” meaning no territorial concessions.
Russian ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik suggested negotiations should not need to go further than the Istanbul proposals of 2022, which included demands such as naming Russia and China as Ukraine’s security guarantors, significantly reducing Ukraine’s armed forces, and forbidding Ukraine from joining foreign alliances like NATO.
Putin himself implied there would be no territorial concessions by discussing investment opportunities in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s stated goal for the talks was to attempt initial steps toward de-escalation and a ceasefire. Ukrainian officials expressed skepticism about Russia’s seriousness, with Zelenskyy describing the Russian delegation as “decorative” and “not serious enough about the negotiations.”
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, stated that Putin’s absence signaled that “Moscow does not want peace and is not ready for serious negotiations,” but that Ukraine was ready to accept any negotiation format to end the conflict.
The outlook for the talks was generally described with skepticism and low expectations by various parties. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated, “we don’t have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow,” and suggested a breakthrough was unlikely without a meeting between President Trump and President Putin.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte commented that the level of the Russian delegation indicated they were “not taking up the opportunity President Zelenskyy has been providing” and that “the ball now is clearly in Russia’s court.”
Analysts and officials suggested Russia’s motivation might be to buy time or that Putin’s primary interest was a direct meeting with the US president rather than a peace deal with Ukraine at this time.
US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, were expected to be in Istanbul, with Rubio stating he would confer with the Turkish Foreign Minister and the Ukrainian delegation, and that the Russian delegation would meet with other members of the US team, with a hope for all sides to meet. President Trump claimed credit for the diplomatic initiative and had suggested he might attend if he thought things could happen, but ultimately did not.
