Russian president Vladimir Putin will only taste defeat via one way, according to one of his ex-advisors.
Two years since his nation's invasion of Ukraine, the 72-year-old is displaying no signs of mercy at the moment - rejecting a temporary peace deal proposed by his American counterpart Donald Trump most recently.
Responding to accusations of erraticism on Putin's part, his former economic advisor Andrei Illarionov (who served under him between 2000 and 2005) previously told Newsmax TV that 'concentrated', 'calculated' and 'persistent' are the words we should really be using in association with him.
Despite all these powerful adjectives, though, he isn't untouchable.
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Illarionov explained: "He knows what he wants and is trying to implement policy to achieve his goals.
"The only thing that can really stop Putin in Ukraine and in Europe, is resistance. Resistance that is being produced by the Ukrainian military, while all Ukrainian people are heroically resisting these aggressions."
Over 100,000 of Putin's soldiers have officially died in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Which brings us back to those all-important ceasefire talks.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has claimed that although they've 'seriously' considered the terms tabled by Trump, the Kremlin still aren't happy with the overall agreement.
Speaking to his country's International Affairs magazine, Ryabkov laid out further demands on top of those other controversial requests.
"We have not heard from Trump a signal to Kyiv to end the war," he revealed, as per Newsweek.
"All that we have today is an attempt to find a certain scheme that would first allow us to achieve a ceasefire, as it is conceived by the Americans.
"And then move on to some other models and schemes, in which, as far as we can judge, today there is no place for our main demand, namely, the solution of problems related to the root causes of this conflict."
Ryabkov went on to elaborate: "This is completely absent, and it must be overcome. We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we cannot accept all this as it is.
"We certainly have a deeply and carefully thought-out set of our own priorities and approaches to this topic, which is being worked out and worked out, including by our negotiating team at the recent talks with the Americans in Riyadh."
What he's skating over there is Putin's supposed desire to take control of Ukraine, which nobody is realistically going to accept.
Topics: Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Politics, Ukraine, World News
Dan Seddon