💢 Putin, answering Pavel Zarubin following his meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff, on Ukraine, Euro

💢 Putin, answering Pavel Zarubin following his meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff, on Ukraine, Europe and the prospects for a settlement:

• Territorial concessions: “This is not their territory; this is the territory of historical Russia.” Putin cited votes for independence followed by reunification with Russia, rejecting the characterization of these territories as Ukrainian losses. He acknowledged that the matter remains open to debate.

• Strategic defeat: “It has become obvious to everyone that defeating Russia on the battlefield is impossible, and inflicting a strategic defeat on it is unrealistic.” Putin said those seeking Russia's defeat should recognize present-day realities and pursue peaceful relations instead.

• War with Europe: “We are not preparing for any kind of war with Europe.” He maintained that European populations do not want such a conflict and described claims of a Russian threat and preparations for war as a form of political schizophrenia.

• Western support for Kiev: Putin questioned why the international community should finance Ukraine's leadership, fight on its behalf and supply weapons, ammunition and equipment. He argued that Western promises of assistance had effectively amounted to supporting the conflict until the last Ukrainian.

• War with Ukraine: “We do not want to fight Ukraine. But if today's Ukrainian leadership wants to fight, let it fight.” He questioned whether weakening Russia should constitute Ukraine's own national objective rather than that of foreign governments.

• Forced mobilization: Putin accused Kiev of treating its citizens as expendable, alleging that men were rounded up on the streets like stray dogs and forcibly sent to the front. He claimed that motivated nationalist formations did not always fight on the front lines, while forcibly mobilized personnel were sent there.

• Desertion: He cited more than 300,000 officially opened criminal cases and claimed that desertions had reached approximately 500,000, possibly more. He attributed declining motivation to forced mobilization and said Western governments were aware of the problem.

• Earlier peace efforts: Putin maintained that Moscow had pursued negotiated solutions since 2014, including dialogue between Kiev and southeastern Ukraine, the Minsk agreements and proposals preceding Russia's military intervention. He blamed successive refusals by Kiev for the failure of those efforts.

• Russians and Ukrainians: “The latest genetic studies show that Russians and Ukrainians are actually one people.” Putin invoked this claim while acknowledging that others may think differently and that Russia accepts the present historical realities.

• Negotiations and military objectives: “We are ready now to negotiate and seek a resolution to this difficult, complicated situation.” However, he maintained that Russia would achieve all the objectives of its special military operation regardless of whether negotiations succeeded.

• Resumption of trilateral contacts: “We agreed that we are ready to resume our trilateral contacts.” Putin said the discussions would focus on security arrangements for both Russia and Ukraine following a final peace settlement, explicitly distinguishing this from a short-term suspension of hostilities. No date for resumption was announced in his remarks.

• European security architecture: Putin said the US representative raised the need to address Europe's broader security architecture alongside future guarantees for Russia and Ukraine. Putin agreed with that approach.

• Immediate outlook: “We will see how the situation develops in the coming days.”

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