Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Moscow would secure Ukraine’s Donbas region “by military or other methods,” cementing one of his prime requisites as Ukrainian leaders ready for further peace discussions that have not yet produced an accord.
Putin is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on Thursday where he will be hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two days subsequent to a conference at the Kremlin with a US contingent headed by special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are journeying to the US on Thursday, where they have been invited to conduct deliberations with their American peers on a scheme to conclude Moscow’s conflict, a Ukrainian insider familiar with the situation informed CNN.
Prior to the Modi summit, Putin granted an interview with India Today, in which he claimed Russia would “pacify Donbas and Novorossiya in any event – by military or alternative means,” according to Russian state service TASS.
One of the Kremlin’s paramount prerequisites is for Ukraine to yield ground in the Donbas area, which Russia has unlawfully claimed but not yet fully overcome. Novorossiya, or New Russia, is a historical appellation denoting territories towards the west during the Russian realm; Putin has revived the term, and employed it in proclaiming the Ukrainian territory of Crimea as part of Russia in 2014.
As Russia intensifies its stance on these territorial claims, which Ukrainian officials persist in refusing, the route toward any agreement appears ever more obscure.
Despite Putin’s bold assertions, Russian forces would only capture the whole Donetsk region in August 2027 at the present pace of their progression, an evaluation by the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based conflict observer, determined.
In Putin’s recounting of his meeting in Moscow on Tuesday with Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, he mentioned Russia did not concur with certain elements of the US proposal, but characterized it as a “tough endeavor.” He restated Russia’s needs that Ukraine pull back its forces from Donbas and “cease from martial activity,” per TASS.
The meeting extended for a considerable duration since both sides needed to “review every aspect of the peace suggestions,” Putin added, according to TASS.
Putin met with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Tuesday.
Putin met with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Tuesday. Kristina Kormilitsyna/Reuters
Trump stated Wednesday the US group had a “very positive meeting” with Putin, and that they believed the Russian head of state “would wish to see the fighting cease” – although the talks failed to result in a breakthrough.
“What emerges from that discussion?” he remarked. “I cannot inform you, because it indeed requires a pair to dance.”
Both sides have remained reserved regarding any headway they achieved in this most recent series of discussions, which have been progressing since a 28-point blueprint drafted by the Trump administration was revealed in late November. Several clauses in that plan were widely viewed as concessions to Russia and included concepts previously spurned by Ukraine and European authorities.
Only minor specifics from these conferences have been disclosed, such as Putin’s aide and foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov confirming they debated territory in the Tuesday meeting, “without which we do not envision a resolution to the predicament.”
He further noted that certain items in the American submissions “appear more or less acceptable,” whilst others “are not suitable for us.”
Ukrainian representatives Rustem Umerov, the chief of the nation’s delegation, and Andrii Hnatov, Kyiv’s Head of the General Staff, are heading to Miami Thursday for their separate peace discussions with the US. There, they will examine the outcomes of Witkoff and Kushner’s encounter in Moscow, according to Oleksandr Bevz, adviser to the Presidential Chief of Staff and a member of the negotiation team.
These talks occur four days following a preceding high-level conference between US and Ukrainian officials that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio characterized as “a highly fruitful and helpful session where … further advancement was attained.”
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