Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow would end its Ukraine offensive if Kyiv withdrew from territory Moscow claims at its own — otherwise they would take it by force.
The Russian army has been slowly but steadily grinding through eastern Ukraine in costly battles against outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces.
Washington has meanwhile renewed its push to end the nearly four-year war, putting forward a surprise plan that it hopes to finalise through upcoming talks with Moscow and Kyiv.
“If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations,” Putin said during a visit to Kyrgyzstan. “If they don’t, then we will achieve it by military means.”
Russia controls around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory. The issue of occupied land, which Kyiv has said it will never cede, has become the key stumbling block in the peace process.
Putin repeated the claim that Russia had encircled the Ukrainian army in Pokrovsk and Myrnograd in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region — the most fiercely embattled area and a key target for Moscow’s forces.
“Krasnoarmeysk and Dimitrov are completely surrounded,” he said, using the Russian names for the cities.
Moscow was also advancing in Vovchansk and Siversk, as well as approaching the important logistic hub of Guliaipole, he added.
The Russian offensive “is practically impossible to hold back, so there is little that can be done about it”, Putin said.
Ukraine has denied Pokrovsk and Myrnograd are encircled, insisting its forces continue to hold the enemy along the front line.
Moscow launched its full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the worst armed conflict in Europe since World War II.
It has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.
President Putin said that the outlines of a draft peace plan discussed by the United States and Ukraine could become the basis of future agreements to end the conflict in Ukraine but that if not then Russia would continue to fight.
“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said, adding that the variant of the plan discussed by the United States and Ukraine in Geneva had been passed to Russia.
Putin said that the United States was taking into account Russia’s position but that some things still need to be discussed. He said that if Europe wanted a pledge not to attack it, then Russia was willing to give such a pledge.
Russia, Putin said, was still being told it should cease the fighting.
“Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the territories they hold, and then the fighting will cease. If they don’t leave, then we shall achieve this by armed means. That’s it,” Putin said. Russian forces, he said, were advancing in Ukraine at a faster pace. — Reuters
