Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on Thursday repeated his demands that Ukraine pull out of the Donbas region in the east of the country, days ahead of a scheduled visit by a US delegation for peace talks to end the ruthless war.
“Ukrainian troops will withdraw from the territories they occupy, and then the fighting will cease,” the Russian leader told reporters.
“If they don’t withdraw, we’ll achieve this through military force,” he said, as reported by the Kyiv Independent.
Moscow has illegally occupied the eastern Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia since September 2022, when it held sham referenda in the territories.
The Donbas, or “Donets Coal Basin,” is a heavily industrialized region made up of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Putin also confirmed a US delegation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to the Russian capital early next week.
Witkoff came under pressure after a leak reportedly caught him coaching a Russian official on how to win over President Trump with flattery during the peace talks.
On Thursday, Putin claimed that the culprits could face criminal charges for leaking the call between Witkoff and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, while also not ruling out that it could be a hoax.
He said those targeting Witkoff were trying to sabotage the talks and wanted “to fight until the last Ukrainian,” just like Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Putin stressed that recognition of Russian rule over Donbas and Crimea — a southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally occupied by Russia since 2014 — is a key point in the US talks.
He also ruled out signing any other documents with Ukraine, calling Zelensky’s government illegitimate due to the postponement of elections.
Under Ukraine’s martial law, declared at the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, holding elections is prohibited.
Putin said that after the talks, the peace plan had been divided into four parts, but did not elaborate.
He added that the US peace plan still needed further discussion.
The rhetoric follows President Trump’s unveiling of a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine last week.
It included conditions such as limiting the size of Ukraine’s military, a ban on NATO membership, and Ukrainian withdrawal from Donbas.
After pushback from the Ukrainian and European delegations, a revised version of the plan was compiled on Sunday in Switzerland.
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