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Posted on 06/21/2025 4:30:54 AM PDT by tlozo
- Russian President Vladimir Putin quipped on Friday (June 20) that in his view the whole of Ukraine was "ours" and cautioned that advancing Russian forces could take the Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border.
Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, also said he was not seeking the capitulation of Ukraine or denying Ukraine's sovereignty, but that Ukraine had to be neutral.
Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, more than 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, over 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Asked about fresh Russian advances, Putin told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that he considered Russians and Ukrainians to be one people and "in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours".
Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea are illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
He has also said that Putin's terms for peace are akin to capitulation.
Putin said on Friday he was not questioning Ukraine's independence or its people's striving for sovereignty, but he underscored that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it had also declared its neutrality.
Putin said Moscow wanted Ukraine to accept the reality on the ground if there was to be a chance of peace - Russia's shorthand for the reality of Russia's control over a chunk of Ukrainian territory bigger than the US state of Virginia.
"We have a saying, or a parable," Putin said. "Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours."
Putin said Russian forces were carving out a buffer zone in Ukraine's Sumy region in order to protect Russian territory and said he did not rule out those same troops taking control of the regional capital of Sumy.
The depth of the zone under Russian control in the Sumy region was 8-12 km, Putin said.
"Next is the city of Sumy, the regional centre. We don't have the task of taking it, but in principle I don't rule it out," he said.
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Zelensky demands Trump give Ukraine $40 BILLION per year in “budgetary support” to “ensure Ukraine carries on”
HELL NO! Your grift is up, Zelensky.
U.S. taxpayers will NO LONGER fund your money laundering operation.
Get lost.pic.twitter.com/ZSyZ1u6wHW— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 20, 2025
3 days later Putin claimed a “sphere of influence” that includes Ukraine.
Putin: "Russia Has Long Recognized the Borders of Modern Day Ukraine"
And there it is, wonder if China has the same ambitions for eastern Russia federation. Same “logic” applies, and would be a whole lot easier than taking Taiwan
Iran send more drones and missiles, er ah nevermind🤕
The spoils of war have always been the rule for every nation. That’s why there’s Canada and the USA...and Mexico and the USA.
Finland's parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to withdraw from an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines, citing the threat posed by Russia.
Finnish lawmakers voted 157-18 in favour of a government proposal to leave the Ottawa Treaty. The 1997 agreement, which prohibits the use, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines, has been ratified or acceded to by more than 160 countries.
NATO member Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre land border with Russia, has said landmines could be used to defend its vast and rugged terrain in the event of an attack.
Russia has not joined the Ottawa Treat, and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has turned the war-torn country into the world's most mine-laden nation, according to analysts.
https://www.euronews.com/2025/06/19/finlands-parliament-votes-to-withdraw-from-landmine-treaty-due-to-russia-threat
LOL, its NOT the 1800's. EVERY country signed the UN Charter promising to settle territorial disputes in the UN.
Putin is now much less reliable for the West than Adolf Hitler was in 1938. Hitler, after all, did not sign any agreements on Czechoslovakia in 1920 that he later wished to break, while Putin had personally guaranteed Ukraine's borders which he had no intention of respecting.
Putin broke a treaty he personally signed with Ukraine, the 2003 “Treaty Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Russian–Ukrainian State Border”. It set Ukraine’s borders as they were in 1991 & was lodged with the UN.
All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
So some weapons are bad until the Finnish need them got it.
Who would want it?
Did Putin just go Baghdad Bob?
All your bases are belong to us.
He can have it.
Many Ukrainian’s hate Russia and they especially hate their leaders... So much so that they even joined the Nazi’s to fight against Stalin. I guess Stalin’s starvation of the Ukraine and the millions of Ukrainian deaths that it caused had a lot to do with that.
Just because they can speak Russian, it doesn’t mean that they like Russia.
Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war of 1812 superseded the Jay Treaty. Nothing is forever.
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