The war against Ukraine “will continue a little longer” – Putin’s spokesman

The spokesman of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Dmytro Peskov, said on November 19, on the 1000th day of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that the so-called “special military operation” needs more time, since it began against the Kyiv regime, and continues as a conflict for with the participation of NATO.

“When all this started, it started against the Kyiv regime. And now it continues as a war between Russia and NATO. That’s why it took a little longer and will continue for a little longer,” he said on the air of the Indian news agency ANI (this is how the quote is transmitted by official Russian agencies, a search on the ANI website does not find this statement).

Peskov added that “this (war against Ukraine – ed.) will end as soon as we achieve our goals.”

In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the officially declared goals of the war “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, “protection of people in the Donbass from genocide”, allegedly carried out by the Ukrainian authorities there. At that time, the Russian leader emphasized that the occupation of Ukrainian territories was not part of Moscow’s plans.

Instead, in October 2024, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia demands from Kyiv the withdrawal of Ukrainian military from four partially occupied regions and Ukraine’s renunciation of its intention to join NATO.

“On June 14, President Vladimir Putin called the prerequisites for the settlement as follows: the complete withdrawal of the Armed Forces of the DPR, LPR (Russian names for Donetsk and Luhansk regions – ed.), Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions; recognition of territorial realities enshrined in the Constitution of Russia; neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear status of Ukraine; its demilitarization and denazification; ensuring the rights, freedoms and interests of Russian-speaking citizens and canceling all sanctions against Russia,” the Russian minister said.

Ukraine calls the withdrawal of Russian troops from all internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which has been occupied since 2014, a condition for the start of negotiations with Russia. According to official Kyiv, the topic of negotiations should be compensation from Moscow for losses caused to Ukraine as a result of unprovoked armed aggression. Ukraine also calls its goal to join the North Atlantic Alliance, which should guarantee the impossibility of new Russian aggression.