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Russian President Vladimir Putin is no longer prepared to consider returning any occupied Ukrainian territory as part of a potential peace agreement and now intends to retain seized areas of Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions as so-called “buffer zones,” Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking, UATV English reports.
According to the report, Moscow believes that informal understandings it had expected to emerge following Putin’s summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska are no longer valid.
Sources told Bloomberg that the Kremlin had previously hoped Ukraine, under pressure from Washington, would agree to relinquish the remainder of Donetsk Oblast in exchange for Russia returning occupied parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions. U.S. officials, however, have repeatedly denied that any such arrangement was ever discussed.
The report says the Kremlin’s frustration has also grown following Trump’s endorsement of legislation originally introduced by the late Senator Lindsey Graham that would impose tariffs of up to 100% on major purchasers of Russian oil and gas.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, Putin now intends to secure full military control over Donetsk Oblast before returning to negotiations.
One source told the agency that Russia’s Defense Ministry has promised to capture the entire region by the end of this year. However, Bloomberg reported that many senior Russian military officials consider that timeline unrealistic and believe full occupation of Donetsk Oblast is unlikely before 2027.
The report comes as Russia continues its offensive operations in eastern Ukraine while diplomatic efforts to negotiate a ceasefire remain stalled.
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