ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (BN24) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday declared that “the whole of Ukraine is ours” in principle, as he hinted that advancing Russian forces could move to capture the Ukrainian city of Sumy in an effort to expand a buffer zone along the northern border.
Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin reinforced his long-standing assertion that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people” and claimed that Ukraine, in its entirety, historically belongs to Russia. “In that sense, the whole of Ukraine is ours,” he said, further escalating rhetoric that Kyiv and Western allies condemn as an attempt to justify illegal territorial seizures.
The comments sparked immediate outrage from Ukraine’s government. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Putin’s remarks demonstrated “complete disdain for U.S. peace efforts” and accused Moscow of actively pursuing further territorial expansion and destruction.
“While the United States and the rest of the world have called for an immediate end to the killing, Russia’s top war criminal discusses plans to seize more Ukrainian territory and kill more Ukrainians,” Sybiha wrote on X. “Wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, he brings along only death, destruction, and devastation.”
Putin’s comments come as Russian forces continue to make incremental gains in eastern and northeastern Ukraine. Russia now controls roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, the vast majority of Luhansk, and significant portions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, along with parts of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy.
Despite the sweeping nature of his territorial claims, Putin insisted he was not denying Ukraine’s sovereignty, referencing Ukraine’s 1991 independence declaration after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, he emphasized that Ukraine had initially committed to neutrality, a point he framed as broken by Kyiv’s current pro-Western stance.
Putin claimed that Russia’s current goal is to create a “buffer zone” along the border to shield Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks. “Next is the city of Sumy, the regional center. We don’t have the task of taking it, but in principle I don’t rule it out,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his nightly address, accused Moscow of deliberately prolonging the war and ignoring calls for a ceasefire. “Russia wants to continue the war,” he said, noting that Ukrainian commanders had been discussing Russian threats in the Sumy region. “We are holding them back and eliminating these killers, defending our Sumy region.”
Zelenskyy again rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians share a single identity and denounced Putin’s so-called peace terms as tantamount to surrender.
Putin invoked a Russian military proverb to underscore his stance: “Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours.” The remark was widely interpreted as a chilling reaffirmation of Russia’s expansionist ambitions.
The Kremlin’s renewed push in Ukraine and Putin’s inflammatory language underscore a growing divide between Russian objectives and international diplomatic efforts. U.S. officials have continued to press for a negotiated end to the conflict, but with both sides dug in and rhetoric intensifying, a diplomatic breakthrough remains elusive.
