In the direction of the continued towards the European side, it continues to move, as demonstrated by the new statements of the president.
The meeting in the Kremlin is useful and necessary
The Russian president, after first asserting that his meeting with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner was “very useful and necessary” and based on proposals discussed with President Donald Trump in Alaska, then made it clear that Moscow will take control of Donbas either by force or by withdrawing Ukrainian troops.
“We will take Donbass”
As Putin characteristically stated before leaving for his visit to India: “Either we will release these territories for military power or the Ukrainian troops will withdraw from these areas.” According to what has become known, Russia has insisted in all contacts with the US to date that it wants full control of all the territories of Donbass, although the Ukrainian side has made it clear that it will not give territories to Russia.
Among other things, he said that the meeting in the Kremlin lasted so long because the American team had “broken” the Trump plan into four sections and they suggested that each of them be discussed separately.
Russia currently controls 19.2% of Ukraine, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, all of Luhansk, over 80% of Donetsk, about 75% of Kherson and Zaporizhia, and small parts of Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
