Putin does not rule out capturing key Ukrainian city

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Russian offensive has forces 12 miles from center of Sumy

Local residents look at damaged residential buildings following the Russian drone attack in Odesa on Friday amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One person was killed and more than a dozen others wounded in Russia’s latest aerial attack on Ukraine, which targeted the southern port city of Odesa, officials said. OLEKSANDR GIMANOV — AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

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By Ivan Nechepurenko

New York Times on Twitter

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia >> President Vladimir Putin of Russia justified the war in Ukraine on Friday by saying Russians and Ukrainians were one people, “and in that sense, the whole of Ukraine is ours,” as he suggested the Russian military may yet capture more territory.

Russia has already annexed four Ukrainian regions, but Putin suggested his forces may soon take yet another big city.

Speaking at an annual economic conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, Putin did not rule out Russian forces taking the city of Sumy. A Russian offensive in northern Ukraine has put its forces about 12 miles outside that city’s center.

“We don’t have a goal to grab Sumy,” Putin said. “But I don’t exclude it in principle.”

“Wherever a Russian soldier steps foot, that’s ours,” he added.

Putin has not shown a willingness to let up his grinding advance and has rejected America’s calls for a ceasefire. President Donald Trump’s election last year gave Russia hope that it could restore economic and diplomatic ties with the United States while continuing to wage war in Ukraine, but Trump has become impatient with Russia’s insistence on continuing the war.

While the Russian president made clear that he had no intention of soon ending the war, he was less specific about plans to annex additional territory beyond those regions Moscow has already declared are officially part of Russia.

In peace talks, the Kremlin has insisted on formal recognition of sovereignty over those regions — one of several positions that are unacceptable to the Ukrainian government. But since those annexations, Russian forces have pushed into three additional regions.

On Friday, before Putin’s remarks, the Kremlin made its most direct statement yet acknowledging that improved relations with the U.S. were tied to Russia’s willingness to the end the war.

“American diplomats believe that we need to directly tie the process of removing the irritants in bilateral relations with the settlement in Ukraine,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, told reporters at the conference Friday.

Peskov reiterated the Kremlin’s position, which is that it wants to discuss relations with the United States separately from efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has been hoping that a thaw with Washington would lead to the lifting of some economic sanctions, the return of some American companies, U.S. investments in Russian natural resources and more leeway for Russia to assert its interests in former Soviet states.

At the same time, Putin has shown little interest in bending to U.S., European and Ukrainian demands to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, where his forces are on the offensive.

Trump had promised to end the war in Ukraine 24 hours after taking office, but efforts to mediate have been dogged by deep disagreements between the warring countries about what peace should look like.

After two direct meetings between Russian and Ukrainian representatives, the negotiations have led only to agreements to exchange prisoners of war and bodies of fallen soldiers.

Frustrated by the lack of progress, Trump has his diplomatic attention elsewhere, most recently the conflict between Iran and Israel, where he is considering whether to join the war on the side of Israel.

Meanwhile, Russian air assaults on Ukraine have intensified in recent weeks, dimming any hopes for a ceasefire. On Thursday night, Russia launched drone attacks on Odesa and Kharkiv, injuring 20 people and killing one person in Odesa, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said on Facebook.

Peskov said Russia expected Russian and Ukrainian representatives to set a date for their third meeting next week, but that the Kremlin was determined to achieve its stated goals in Ukraine either diplomatically or militarily.

The talks between Russia and the United States on restoring bilateral ties have also been dragging. Despite multiple phone calls between Putin and Trump this year and at least four public meetings of Russian and American officials over the same period, nothing substantive has been achieved so far on that issue. The two countries’ diplomatic missions are still understaffed and some consulates are still shut.

There has also not been any tangible movement in terms of American companies returning to Russia or sanctions being lifted. The St. Petersburg conference, a yearly event promoted by the Kremlin as a magnet for Western businesses, has turned into a platform where Russian state companies showcase themselves. Again this year, no major American investors showed up and there was little sign of Western interest.

At the conference, Putin instructed government members that they cannot allow it to slip into “stagnation and even recession.”

“This cannot be allowed under any circumstances,” Putin said.

On Thursday, Russia’s economy minister said the country was on the verge of sliding into a recession, putting more pressure on its central bank to lower interest rates, which now are at 20%.