Putin wanted to send everyone a message at a crucial moment in the war

To announce the conquest of Pokrovsk and hours before receiving the North American delegation, the President of Russia staged a new choreography

Dressed from head to toe in army uniforms, Russian President Vladimir Putin received on Sunday the news he had been waiting for for more than a year: Russia had seized the city of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine.

It doesn’t matter that Kiev contested the statement, saying, this Tuesday, that there was still fighting inside the city and that Moscow’s “rehearsed statements” about taking Pokrovsk “do not correspond to reality”.

The aim of the highly choreographed meeting between Putin and his top military officers was to show the world that Russia is winning in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said Putin was informed of the victory during a visit to a “command post” on Sunday, although both were only made public late on Monday, the day before the Russian leader’s meeting with US President Donald Trump’s top aides.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, accompanied by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was due to meet Putin this Tuesday – the latest stage in a US diplomatic whirlwind aimed at ending the war in Ukraine – which .

Putin has indicated he has no interest in finding compromises. He reiterated his maximalist demands that Ukraine limit the size of its army, cede part of its territory and be banned from joining NATO.

The proposal that Witkoff is presenting to Putin has not been made public, but Ukraine has made it clear that it cannot accept any peace plan that invades its sovereignty in accordance with Moscow’s demands.

The power of theatricality

Putin’s visit to the military post on Sunday, immediately before his meeting with the Americans, was clearly designed to portray Putin as a strong wartime leader who has the upper hand in Ukraine.

Unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who regularly goes to the front line to meet soldiers, the Russian leader tends to stay away from the war.

His interactions with the military are rare but carefully timed – such as when he went to Kursk in March, just days before one of his previous meetings with Witkoff in Moscow.

Speaking to his top generals on Sunday, Putin praised them for “liberating” Pokrovsk, which he called Krasnoarmiisk, the Soviet-era name, which translates to “City of the Red Army.”

This Monday, the Kremlin made a point of highlighting developments in Pokrovsk, publishing a video showing Russian soldiers unfurling a Russian flag in the city center of Pokrovsk – despite that particular area having been under Moscow’s control for some time.

The strategic value of Pokrovsk, which served as a Ukrainian supply center at the beginning of the war, was greatly reduced during the many months of intense fighting. However, its capture would represent the biggest victory for Moscow since 2023.

Ukrainian troops on the ground in Pokrovsk told CNN the situation is extremely difficult.

A Ukrainian commander with a unit fighting in the city noted that Russian troops were “neither nor far in complete control” of Pokrovsk and that his unit was still holding its positions within the city. However, another soldier admitted that it was “almost true” that Russia was controlling the city.

CNN cannot publish the names of the soldiers due to security restrictions.

These statements around Pokrovsk echo the bold statements Russia made about “piercing” the Ukrainian front line in August, just days before the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska.

Speaking at the command post on Sunday, Putin stressed that the Russian military was “advancing at a pace that guarantees the completion of all our objectives.” Putin reiterated the statement he made last week when he threatened Kiev that if it does not agree to cede some of its territories, including the rest of the Donetsk region, willingly in negotiations, Russia will take them by force.

George Barros, who heads the Russia and Geospatial Intelligence teams at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, said Putin’s messages are aimed at both Ukraine’s Western allies and Ukraine.

“If he can convince the world that Russia’s victory on the battlefield is inevitable, then that begs the question [entre os aliados de Kiev] ‘Why are we supporting Ukraine? Let’s negotiate now,'” Barros told CNN last month.

But although Russia is advancing along the front lines in eastern Ukraine, its overall victory is not at all certain, Barros added. The ISW’s latest assessment of the pace of advance of Russian forces indicates that a Russian military victory in Ukraine is “not inevitable” and that a rapid Russian military takeover of the rest of the Donetsk region – which Putin has threatened – is unlikely.

Therefore, although Putin and his military commanders continue to tout Russian advances and sell the narrative of their inevitable victory, the easiest way for Russia to get what it wants is to coerce Ukraine into accepting a bad deal or convince Kiev’s allies to facilitate their support.

The US would be fundamental to either option.

Billy Stockwell, Darya Tarasova, Kostya Gak, Svitlana Vlasova and Victoria Butenko, from CNN, contributed to a report.