Putin: Russia will seek to extend gains in Ukraine if peace talks fail

Vladimir Putin was speaking at a meeting of senior Russian officers and war heroes in Moscow (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that Moscow will seek to extend its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the Kremlin’s demands in peace talks.

US President Donald Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end nearly four years of fighting following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but Washington’s efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.

Speaking at an annual meeting with top military officers, Mr Putin said Moscow would prefer to achieve its goals and “eliminate the root causes of the conflict” by diplomatic means, but he added that “if the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive dialogue, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means”.

Mr Putin was referring to Ukrainian territory seized by Russia – action widely condemned in the West as a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and an unprovoked act of aggression.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, with Russian Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov in Moscow (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Mr Putin claimed that “the Russian army has seized and is firmly holding strategic initiative all along the front line” and warned that Moscow will move to expand a “buffer security zone” alongside the Russian border.

“Our troops are different now, they are battle-hardened and there is no other such army in the world now,” he said.

Mr Putin praised Russia’s growing military might and particularly noted the modernisation of its atomic arsenal, including the new nuclear-capable intermediate range Oreshnik ballistic missile that he said will officially enter combat duty this month.

Russia first tested a conventionally armed version of the Oreshnik to strike a Ukrainian factory in November 2024, and Mr Putin has boasted that it is impossible to intercept.

At the same time, he rejected European officials’ statements about Moscow’s purported plans to attack European nations as “lies and sheer nonsense… driven by short-sighted, personal or group political interests, not by the interests of their people”.

Mr Putin’s tough statements follow several rounds of talks this week between Ukrainian, American and European officials on a US-drafted peace plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after meeting with US envoys in Berlin that the document could be finalised within days, after which US envoys will present it to the Kremlin.

Mr Putin wants all the areas in four key regions captured by his forces, as well as Crimea, which was illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognised as Russian territory. He also has demanded that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces have not captured yet.

The Kremlin also insists that Ukraine abandon its bid to join Nato and warns it will not accept the deployment of any troops from Nato members and will view them as a “legitimate target”.

Mr Zelensky has expressed readiness to drop Ukraine’s bid to join Nato if the US and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to Nato members. But Ukraine’s preference remains Nato membership as the best security guarantee to prevent further Russian aggression.

At the same time, Mr Zelensky has rejected Moscow’s demands that it pull back its troops from other areas that Russia has not been able to take by force.