Putin says any Ukraine peace deal must ensure Russia's security, vows no retreat

By Vladimir Soldatkin and Dmitry Antonov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will seek a peace deal in Ukraine that safeguards its own long-term security and will not retreat from the gains it has made in the conflict, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday in comments to relatives of soldiers killed there.

Putin also took an indirect swipe at French President Emmanuel Macron, saying Western leaders should not underestimate the Russian people and should keep in mind the fate of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose invasion of Russia in 1812 ended in disaster.

"We must choose for ourselves a peace option that will suit us and that will ensure peace for our country in the long term," Putin told a group of Russian women who have lost loved ones during the three-year war in Ukraine.

Asked by the mother of one fallen soldier if Russia would retreat, Putin said he did not intend to do that. Russia currently controls just under a fifth of Ukraine - or about 113,000 square km.

At times during the meeting some women wiped away tears.

U.S. President Donald Trump has upended Western policy on the Ukraine war, opening up bilateral talks with Moscow and pausing military aid to Kyiv after clashing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the White House last week.

Reuters reported in November that Putin was open to discussing a Ukraine peace deal with Trump but ruled out any major territorial concessions and would insist that Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

In comments last summer setting out his terms for ending the war, Putin also said Ukraine must withdraw all its forces from the entire territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and partly controlled by Russia.

MACRON MOCKED

Trump's dramatic change of U.S. policy on Ukraine has raised hopes for peace talks but has also alarmed Washington's European allies who this week have reaffirmed their support for Kyiv.

France's Macron angered Moscow on Wednesday when he said in an address to the nation that Russia was a threat to Europe.

Macron said Paris could discuss extending its nuclear umbrella to allies and that he would hold a meeting of army chiefs from European countries willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine after any peace deal.

Russia mocked Macron, calling him "Micron". Russian cartoons cast him as France's Emperor Napoleon riding towards defeat in Russia in 1812.

"There are still people who want to go back to the time of Napoleon, they forget how it ended," Putin said on Thursday, without mentioning Macron by name.

"All the mistakes of our enemies and opponents began with this: in underestimating the character of the Russian people and representatives of Russian culture in general," Putin added.