The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said during a press conference in Kyiv that Vladimir Putin believes he is “winning” the war in Ukraine and plans to seize Donbas by the end of 2025.
Putin told the White House and the US special envoy Steve Witkoff that by the end of 2025 Russia will occupy the eastern Donbas region.
The Donbas region comprises of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, which was invaded in 2014 prior to the Kremlin launching their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
President Zelensky warned that the Kremlin’s plans may cost “years and a million people” there could perhaps be a staggering “two or three million corpses,” should Moscow push with their offensive.
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Zelensky said, “That is, he (Putin) says that in three to four months, and this is what he told the Americans, the White House, and President Trump’s representative Witkoff, he said that he would take Donbas in two to three months, maximum four months.”
The Russian dictator has continually demanded the Donbas as precondition for peace, but this would then be the perfect springboard for Putin’s troops to try and take all of Ukraine at a later date in the future.
A source told the Kyiv Independent that Moscow wants Zelensky to withdraw all Ukrainian troops from the Russian controlled parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, then the Kremlin will pull back their forces from Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts, they claim.
In February the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there will be “no thought” of any territorial concessions to Ukraine and the illegally annexed territory of Ukraine’s Crimes, Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will remain part of Russia.
Reuters reported that Lavrov said, “Territorial concessions to what is now called Ukraine were made by the Soviet leadership during the formation of the USSR.”
Russia illegally annexed the four oblasts even though Moscow had no control over them, this includes the two regional capitals Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which are Ukrainian, the Kyiv Independent reported.
In 2024 Vladimir Putin said the only conditions for peace negotiations, will require Ukrainian troops to leave the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts.
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