Putin made it clear that Odessa, Kharkov and Kiev are Russian lands.
When did he say this? My impression is that while Russia is fine annexing the breakaway eastern parts of Ukraine with large numbers of ethnic Russians, it’s not eager to try to govern what will likely be an unfriendly population in the west.
In his Tucker Carlson interview when he was talking about the history of the Rus, he stated multiple times that Kiev is part of Russia.
In his state of the union before the elections he declared that the Black Sea should be secured. Which means Odessa and Mikolayv will be annexed as well. This would make sense, as it would also connect the Transnistria region with the rest of Russia.
A year ago, when they stated which areas they would incorporate into Russia, they claimed Zaporizshia, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk. But they’ve also stated this is the minimal goal, and they’d like to have a buffer between Russian lands and the West. Which logically means, they’ll incorporate in some fashion the Kharkov, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy oblasts, possibly Chernihvy too.
From there, you are already at the Dnieper river and Kiev isn’t that far. If Ukraine insists on not surrendering, then I assume they’ll annex everything up to the Dnieper, which will include Kiev.
Ukraine will likely remain as a rump state, and Russia will most likely impose a population exchange as part of a ceasefire, to ensure mostly compliant Russian-speakers remain in their newly administered lands.
When did he say this? My impression is that while Russia is fine annexing the breakaway eastern parts of Ukraine with large numbers of ethnic Russians, it’s not eager to try to govern what will likely be an unfriendly population in the west.
In his Tucker Carlson interview when he was talking about the history of the Rus, he stated multiple times that Kiev is part of Russia.
In his state of the union before the elections he declared that the Black Sea should be secured. Which means Odessa and Mikolayv will be annexed as well. This would make sense, as it would also connect the Transnistria region with the rest of Russia.
A year ago, when they stated which areas they would incorporate into Russia, they claimed Zaporizshia, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk. But they’ve also stated this is the minimal goal, and they’d like to have a buffer between Russian lands and the West. Which logically means, they’ll incorporate in some fashion the Kharkov, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy oblasts, possibly Chernihvy too.
From there, you are already at the Dnieper river and Kiev isn’t that far. If Ukraine insists on not surrendering, then I assume they’ll annex everything up to the Dnieper, which will include Kiev.
Ukraine will likely remain as a rump state, and Russia will most likely impose a population exchange as part of a ceasefire, to ensure mostly compliant Russian-speakers remain in their newly administered lands.