In Putin's Rapacious Territorial Sights

"To prevent the Ukrainian national movement from growing, the Russian state also banned Ukrainian organizations from 'both civil society and the body politic ... as a guarantee against political instability'."

"In 1876, Tsar Alexander II issued a decree outlawing Ukrainian books and periodicals and prohibiting the use of Ukrainian in theatres, even in musical libretti. He also discouraged or banned the new voluntary organizations and provided subsidies to pro-Russian newspapers and pro-Russian organizations instead."

"The sharp hostility to Ukrainian media and Ukrainian civil society later espoused by the Soviet regime -- and, much later, by the post-Soviet Russian government as well -- thus had a clear precedent in the second half of the nineteenth century.:

"Industrialization deepened the pressure for Russification as well, since the construction of factories brought outsiders to Ukrainian cities from elsewhere in the Russian empire. By 1917 only one-fifth of the inhabitants of Kyiv spoke Ukrainian."

"The discovery of coal and the rapid development of heavy industry had a particularly dramatic impact on Donbas, the mining and manufacturing region on the eastern edge of Ukraine. The leading industrialists in the region were mostly Russians, with a few notable foreigners mixed in: John Hughes, a Welshman, founded the city now known as Donetsk, originally called 'Yuzivka' in his honour. Russian became the working language of the Donetsk factories. Conflicts often broke out between Russian and Ukrainian workers, sometimes taking the 'most wild forms of knife fights' and pitched battles."

The Ukrainian Quest, Red Famine, Anne Applebaum 

Mass starvation, Holodomor history, Holodomor Museum

 

Ukraine, as far as Russia has always been concerned, is merely a suburb of Russia. Russia's 'little brother' as it were. And Russia never hesitated to exploit the richness of Ukraine's natural resources for its own use, as it did during the dreadful period of the famine now known as the Holodomor, considered by modern historians to represent an early 20th century genocide. Ukraine was exploited by Russia, by Poland, by Germany, none of which considered it a nation, much less one that had any right or reason to be sovereign.

 

In 2014, Moscow indulged Russian-speaking Ukrainian separatists, aiding them in armed hostilities against the government in Kyiv in their claims that the Donbas belonged to them, and as such remained an integral part of Russia. Russian troops disguised as separatists took the opportunity to occupy coveted Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine. Vladimir Putin waited another few years before embarking on a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.  

 

Since then, Russian troops have attacked and fought Ukrainian defenders of the Ukrainian homeland. The Kremlin is fond of stating that its missiles only target military sites, when in fact, over a period of four years, missile and drone attacks have targeted civilian sites, from hospitals and schools, domestic energy stations to apartment blocks, killing thousands of civilians.  Ukrainian cities and towns have been devastated by these massive night-time attacks, there are ruined and empty towns throughout the country with millions internally displaced and many millions more made refugees.

 

“I expect the war to continue until there is some sort of clear winner and loser on the battlefield,” says Oxana Shevel. Ukrainian artillerymen shooting 122 mm howitzer D-30 into Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Photo: Shutterstock 

"As long as there is an armed anti-Russia on Ukrainian territory, there can be no peace."

"I don't think anyone had any big hopes that the talks would end in success. The positions are very, very far from each other."

"The idea of territorial swaps for peace is not Russia's idea. It is Trump's."

Sergei Markov, pro-Kremlin political analyst  

Russian President Vladimir Putin's stated reason for invading Ukraine was the Russian obligation to save Ukraine from the neo-Nazi government in Kyiv that was planning to attack Russia. Internationally law-abiding Russia was embarked on a mission to rescue Ukrainians from the sinister bosom of their fascist government. Vladimir Putin's territorial-grab-lust has inspired Ukrainian pride in their nation. Rather than surrendering to the much larger, better-equipped military that Russia dispatched to an assumed month-long 'special military operation' to restore Ukraine to a Russian satellite, Kyiv and the Ukrainian military girded themselves and began their courageous response that moved from defense to counter-offense.

 

Now that U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to end the war with the use of his diplomatic skills after having insulted and verbally assaulted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the purported instigator of the conflict, ongoing 'peace talks' have gone nowhere, much to the dismay of the European powers that have stood foursquare in Ukraine's defense, supplying that doughty nation with war materiel, funding and political backing. The talks stall because Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the Donbas, not all of which Russia has conquered. Kyiv has no intention of doing so.

 

Ukrainian servicemen working drones   Photo source: Smoliyenko Dmytro/Ukrinform/ABACA 

 

Those who support the prospect of territorial exchanges imagine Russia could withdraw from some areas its troops occupies in exchange for Ukraine withdrawing its military from portions of the heavily fortified Donbas areas. During four years of full-scale war, Russia has failed in its determination to capture the entire area. For its part, Ukraine has become expert in the creation of sophisticated, relatively inexpensive-to-produce military drones, and has been able to send them, along with the medium-range ballistic missiles the former U.S. administration and its European allies have provided into Russia, hitting as far as Moscow.

 

While Vladimir Putin characterizes its bloody invasion costing tens of thousands of lives of Ukrainian servicemen and even greater numbers of his own military as sacrifices to his overweening territorial ambition as a noble enterprise, he speaks scathingly of Ukraine's 'terrorism' which successfully targets Russian maritime assets and bridges as well as penetrating inside Russian borders and hitting Russian oil assets close to Moscow. 

 

For his part, embattled Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains ever optimistic, his faith in his own people's resolve not to surrender their country to the rapacious whims of a bloody dictator, and his own steady steering of his nation's fortunes toward an end to the nightmare that Russia has engulfed them in, earns the admiration and the support of his neighbours who know that should Putin succeed in Ukraine, it will be only a matter of time that countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland will be in Putin's sights.

 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, congratulating his Ukrainian soldiers. Brookings Institute

  

Trust in Vladimir Putin's Sincere Promises of Peace

"[I am ready for contact with Zelenskyy] but I do not see much point. Why? Because it is nearly impossible to reach agreement with the Ukrainian side on key issues."

"If decisions are reached that will lead... to long-term peace, then I simply don't see the point in [foreign troops'] presence [in Ukraine]."

"[Russia would comply with any decisions leading to long-term peace] in full." 

"[Any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine would be] legitimate targets. If any troops appear there [Ukraine], especially now while fighting is ongoing, we assume that they will be legitimate targets."

"As for possible military contingents in Ukraine, this is one of the primary reasons for Ukraine's involvement in NATO. Therefore, if any troops appear there, especially now, during the course of hostilities, we assume that they will be legitimate targets for their destruction."

"And if decisions are reached that will lead to peace, to a long-term peace, then I simply do not see any point in their presence on the territory of Ukraine."

"President Trump and I have an open dialogue and we have agreed that, if necessary, we can call each other, get in touch and come to an agreement. He knows that I am open to these conversations and he is too, I know that."

"But so far, based on the results of those consultations in Europe, we have not had any conversations." 

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Sept. 5, 2025.  Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool via AP

 

"[It is important that security guarantees] start working now, during the war, and not only after it ends."

"[It is too early to commit to the number of troops that might be involved, but] it will definitely not be in the single digits, but in thousands."

"[More details cannot be disclosed since they are] sensitive and relate to the military sphere."

"We support any format, bilateral meeting, trilateral meeting, I believe that Russia does everything to defer it."  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy  

 

"It is impossible to ensure the security of one country at the expense of destroying the security of another."

"This will not help us get closer to a solution to the Ukrainian conflict."

"We are the enemy of NATO. This is written in the NATO documents. We will do everything necessary to ensure our security."

"[The presence of foreign troops in Ukraine near the Russian border would be] dangerous for our country." 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov

European leaders re-pledged commitment to a prospective peacekeeping force, the very same prospect that Moscow describes as "unacceptable". Vladimir Putin unequivocally slammed the potential of European troops appearing in Ukraine as part of a commitment to respond to Kyiv's demand for reassurance on the premise that should a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine be achieved, Russia will continue its occupation on a more stealthy footing, refusing in the final analysis, to surrender its intentions to fully fracture Ukraine to Russia's territorial advantage.

 

For its part, Putin declared that "no one would doubt" Moscow would comply with a treaty halting its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, he declared, security guarantees would be required for Russia as well, along with Ukraine. For Russia, those security guarantees would no doubt relate to its military hold on the areas of Ukraine it has unilaterally declared part of Greater Russia. Even though the only part of Ukraine where Moscow has full control is Crimea. Although Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia have been declared annexed they are not fully occupied by Russia.

 

France's President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky arrive to chair the Coalition of the Willing Summit, at The Elysee presidential Palace in Paris, September 4, 2025.

Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

 

Ukraine's European allies are aware of the need to maintain "maximum pressure" on Moscow to prevent it from maintaining the full prosecution of the conflict with the obvious aim of solidifying its successes on the battlefield to the extent it enables itself to fully occupy the four oblasts it has claimed for Russia. According to French President Emmanuel Macron, 26 of Ukraine's allies pledge to deploy a "reassurance force" upon the end of the conflict when a peace agreement or ceasefire has been reached.

 

The 'coalition of the willing', a group of 35 countries supporting Ukraine, met in Paris for a deep discussion of the situation and to reaffirm their support for Ukraine. Of the 26 countries committing to the deployment of troops to Ukraine to maintain a presence on land, at sea and in the air, they were agreed to help guarantee the security of Ukraine the day following the achievement of a ceasefire or peace agreement. 

 

At the international economic conference that took place at the Ambrosetti Forum Friday, President Zelenskyy urged recognition of the importance of security guarantees for Ukraine.  European officials have been informed by their American counterparts that Washington could provide additional air defences, including assistance in the establishment of a no-fly zone, along with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Ukraine's European allies are convinced that without U.S. assistance their aid to Ukraine in defying Russian territorial grabs would be incomplete.

 

Ukrainian servicemen of the 44th artillery brigade fire a 2s22 Bohdana self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions at the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, as peace talks drag on.  (Danylo Antoniuk/AP Photo)

Once again, overnight Russian troops attacked Ukraine with 157 strikes and decoy drones along with missiles. Ukraine's air defences shot down or jammed 121 of the drones, while one attack damaged multiple residential buildings in Dnipro in central Ukraine. An unspecified 'facility' had been set alight in the strike, according to the regional administration. Serhi Lysak head of regional administration, shared photographs of residential buildings with roofs damaged, glass and rubble covering the ground. "Private homes were damaged. Windows in apartment buildings were shattered", he wrote. 

  

For its part, Ukraine stepped up its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure claiming with good cause, that it fuels Moscow's war effort. In some regions of Russia gas stations have run dry. Motorists wait in long lines while officials have been forced, given the circumstances, to resort to rationing or cutting sales off altogether, reflecting the success of Ukraine's targeting of Russia's oil lines. 

 

Oil pumping jacks in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)