Putin claims that he wants Ukraine to ”acknowledge reality”, not surrender

Vladimir Putin. Photo: Screenshot from Putin’s speech at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has claimed yet again that Russians and Ukrainians are “one and the same people”.

Source: Putin in a speech at the 28th St Petersburg International Economic Forum, as reported by Russian media

Details: The Kremlin leader asserted that Russia is not seeking Ukraine’s surrender, but “insisting on an acknowledgement of the realities that have developed on the ground”.

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He also noted that Moscow’s actions in Ukraine following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity – referred to as the “coup” by Russian propaganda – were aimed at “protecting the population spiritually connected with Russia”.

Putin also reiterated his fantasy that Russians and Ukrainians are “one and the same people” and that “wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that belongs to us”.

The Russian leader also trotted out his well-worn claim that he could have met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2022, but that then-UK prime minister Boris Johnson had “talked Ukraine out of it”.

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