In his Sunday prime-time interview for state TV yesterday, President Vladimir Putin presented a detailed refutation of the line now dominating international media, that Russia is on its back foot and Kiev is gaining ground. Putin went through the entire front line, from north to south.
He described the progress of Russia’s North group of forces in establishing a security zone in the Sumy and Kharkov Regions of Ukraine, along Russia’s border. This objective of occupying land outside the four regions that have joined the Russian Federation, “was set following the Ukrainian armed forces’ incursion into the Kursk Region and the continuing attacks on our border areas.” Thus, said Putin, “The Ukrainian regime will pay for its crimes on Kursk soil by losing territory needed to create this border security zone.”
Turning to the Donbass and adjacent areas, Putin reported Russia’s advances around the city of Kupyansk in Kharkov Region, and the imminent takeover of Krasny Liman, “home to one of the largest railway marshalling yards in the former Soviet Union and … a key logistics hub in the Donetsk People’s Republic.” Only 149 of its approximately 11,000 buildings are not yet in Russian hands. (Many of these buildings have been reduced to rubble during four years of fighting.)
Across the Seversky Donets River to the south of Krasny Liman are the Donbass Arc cities of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka, Alexeyevo-Druzhkovka, and Konstantinovka. Russian advances here (Konstantinovka is almost entirely in Russian hands), he pointed out, have involved breaking through “a three-tier line of engineering fortifications, approximately 400 meters deep, on four sectors.” He went on to describe advances in the Zaporozhye Region, and more.
Putin’s summary did not include the current Russian campaign to destroy gas stations throughout eastern Ukraine. As of yesterday, sources from both sides report that some 200 gas stations have been blown up along major highways, paralyzing Ukrainian logistics between, for example, the cities of Dnipro and Kharkov.
Putin revealed that contacts with the Kiev regime continue “through several channels.” Besides the well-known Ukrainian (and UK/EU/US) demand for an immediate ceasefire, he said there have been new, previously unpublicized proposals. “One is that both sides should stop carrying out long-range strikes deep inside each other’s territory. The reason for this proposal is obvious. Our retaliatory strikes deep inside Ukrainian territory are far more powerful, more effective and, frankly, more destructive, resulting in genuinely serious consequences for the Kiev regime.”
“Another proposal is to limit military operations—please note this carefully—to just four territories: the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions and the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, while halting hostilities everywhere else. The reasoning here is equally clear. If we were to agree, it would allow the Ukrainian armed forces to redeploy troops from the Nikolayev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Sumy regions, as well as from certain sections of the state border, to reinforce those four regions. Given the Ukrainian armed forces’ catastrophic manpower shortage, they apparently believe this could provide them with a lifeline. But rescuing the Kiev regime is not part of our plans. That said, and I say this without the slightest irony, we consider every proposal coming from the other side with due attention.”
The interview can be read here, although the transcript is missing a final section in which Putin discussed the Trump Administration and his talks with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
