A contentious narrative has been reignited by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who asserts that “all of Ukraine is ours.” His remarks regarding the seizure of Summy, Ukraine, also aroused more pressing worries.
Putin, the president of Russia, has stated that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people” and that “all of Ukraine is ours.”
The claim highlights Moscow’s persistent undermining of Ukrainian sovereignty and rekindles concerns about Russia’s territorial aspirations.
Regarding Ukraine’s sovereignty, what did Putin say?
Putin made a number of controversial statements during his speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, including the following: “We have a saying… where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours.”
He was answering a query concerning the goals of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
Although Russia “never doubted” Ukraine’s sovereignty upon its independence in 1991, the Russian leader stressed that Ukraine had abandoned its neutrality declaration.
He reiterated a long-standing claim that Ukrainians and Russians were basically one country, which Kyiv and its Western supporters vehemently disagree with.
Putin’s remarks, according to Ukraine, demonstrated his “disdain” for the peace effort.
Regarding Sumy, what did Putin say?
Putin stated that he does not “rule out” the seizure of Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine that is around 30 kilometers (just over 18 miles) from the Russian border, as one of the major events.
“We have no objective to take Sumy but, in principle, I do not rule it out,” he said, referring to the ongoing shelling of Russian border territories by Ukrainian forces.
In the Sumy region, he continued, Russian troops had already advanced up to 12 kilometers into Ukrainian territory to establish what he referred to as a protected “buffer zone.”
Russian attacks on Sumy have been common, despite the fact that it is not one of the five Ukrainian territories that Moscow claims to have annexed: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea.
Source: DW News
