Putin: Ukrainian forces must withdraw from Donbas, or else Russia will seize the entire region by force or other means
Reuters, Moscow, the Russian president Putin stated in an interview on Thursday that unless Ukrainian forces withdraw, Russia would take full control of the Donbas region in Ukraine by force. Kyiv has firmly rejected this.
In February 2022, after eight years of continuous fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region (comprising Donetsk and Luhansk provinces), Putin sent tens of thousands of soldiers into Ukraine.
According to Reuters, Putin said in a clip of an interview with Indian media aired on December 4 on the Russian state television on Thursday: "Either we liberate these areas by force, or the Ukrainian army withdraws from the area." Putin was giving this interview before his visit to India.
Kyiv refused to hand over territories that Russian forces had failed to capture on the battlefield, and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said that no rewards should be given to Russia, the party that started the war.
Russia currently controls 19.2% of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea, the entire Luhansk region, 80% of the Donyetsk region, about 75% of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Nikolaev, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
As of now, about 5,000 square kilometers of Donetsk are still under Ukrainian control.
During the Trump administration's efforts to promote negotiations for a peace agreement framework between Russia and Ukraine, Moscow repeatedly expressed its desire to control the entire Donbas region and asked the US to informally recognize Moscow's control.
Russia announced the annexation of these areas after holding referendums in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions in 2022. However, the West and Kyiv have called these referendums fake. Most countries recognize these areas and Crimea as part of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, December 2, Putin met with U.S. envoy Witkov and Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Trump, at the Kremlin. The five-hour talks failed to reach a compromise, and later it was reported that Putin said: If Europe wants to fight Russia, Russia is already prepared for it.
The next day, Wednesday, according to Reuters, when asked whether it could be said that Putin had rejected the U.S. proposal, Kremlin spokesman Peskov downplayed it, saying it was not appropriate to say so. Peskov said that this was the first direct exchange of views, some parts were accepted, and some were considered unacceptable, which is a normal process in seeking compromise.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would begin preparing to meet with the advisors of U.S. President Trump in Washington. Zelenskyy emphasized that any plan must completely end the war, and it should not just be a temporary ceasefire since Russia launched its offensive in February 2022.
Source: rfi
Original: toutiao.com/article/1850588160609344/
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