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.
“Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine”
Russia controlled a fifth of Ukraine in 2022.
PUTIN: “I have already said many times: Russians and Ukrainians are one people— in this sense, the whole of Ukraine is ours… But we have never questioned Ukraine’s sovereignty. At the same time, the conditions under which Ukraine became independent were set forth in the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, where it is clearly written in black and white that Ukraine is a non-aligned, non-nuclear, neutral state. It would be good to return to these fundamental values”https://x.com/alx/status/1936101569621053538
Lol...I can only imagine how uninformed you’d have to be to reference a map from a kids board game to make a point.
Your roll Timmy...🙄
Not to put too fine a point on this, but the whole western half of Russia is Ukraine’s - in historical fact...
>>>>You can’t argue or reason with the Russian troll farm in here. I wish the FR powers-that-be would put a stop to this crap. The Russians in here have ruined FR.<<<<
Please post a list of the Russian trolls who are ruining FR along with your proof and copy Jim. I’m sure he’d be interested.
Neocon Negan and tlolzo think I’m Pro-Putin? Nah, I’m just a peace-loving guy who thinks vodka and diplomacy go better than tanks, tantrums, and Fox news.
>>>>Neocon Negan and tlolzo think I’m Pro-Putin? Nah, I’m just a peace-loving guy who thinks vodka and diplomacy go better than tanks, tantrums, and Fox news.<<<<
And I’m just a peace-loving girl who wants what’s best for my country, AMERICA, and its people.
But in the twisted slav mind of a zeeper, if you’re not willing to sacrifice every drop of your blood and every dollar you have to sustain the corrupt craphole known as Ukraine, you’re a Russian Troll.
“Please post a list of the Russian trolls who are ruining FR along with your proof and copy Jim. I’m sure he’d be interested.”
Yes, I agree with bimboeruption. Please list these Russian trolls, Neocon Negan. And post links where they’re expressing their support for Putin and Russia. We’d all like to see that.
And you say, “I wish the FR powers-that-be would put a stop to this crap.” Oh, they try, but the zeepers just keep stirring the pot with stupid, inflammatory comments like yours. Jim has asked you people to stop doing that.
“We are conservatives. Be respectful to your debate adversary (fellow FReeper). For example, do not accuse them of being a “Putinista”, “comrade”, “murderer”, “baby-killer”, etc, just because he may have a difference of opinion whether or not the US government should be involved in a controversial foreign war where we were not attacked.” -Jim Robinson
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4166577/posts
“So much so that they even joined the Nazi’s to fight against Stalin. “
This nonsense again. We’ve all seen the famous photos of Ukrainian peasants welcoming the Germans with flowers. They were quickly disillusioned. Very few joined the Nazis; one worthless SS division, some anti-partisan local militias, and a few thousand of the Trawniki men to man the concentration camps. Many more Ukrainians served in the Red Army or pro-Soviet Partisans.
“Lol, except if you happen to be one of Russia’s neighbors, Finland, Estonia, Poland, etc then yes, you do care that Putin says: “Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours.””
Stupid warmongering crap from you. They held all those lands in 1991 and gave it all up peacefully. They could have kept it all.
These Slavs do like to spend other people’s money, don’t they? And they’re always demanding more.
His post smells like Joe Biden’s diaper after a full day of wear. Phew!
Fortunately, President Trump is nothing like the Biden Consortium and isn’t keen on handing over our taxpayer dollars willy-nilly to that short, mincing little grifter whenever he demands it. Our President is on to that little Zelensky and on to Putin as well.
He, like we, see those corrupt clowns for what they are.
Let Europe take care of Ukraine. It’s not like we have a cabbage shortage here or anything.
jerod is correct, but in the usual zeeper style, he left out a thing or two....
It was across the plains of Ukraine’s “borderland” that Hitler’s divisions swept from the west in 1941, bolstered by Ukraine’s Nazi cultists and collaborators. The result was more than 20 million Russian dead.
When the Nazis invaded the U.S.S.R. in June 1941, Bandera’s Ukie followers also murdered 4,000 Jews in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, in a few days, using weapons ranging from guns to metal poles.
Why didn’t you mention this, jerod?
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