Russia pushes for full control of four Ukrainian regions at Saudi Arabia talks

Moscow Times reports this with reference to its own sources.

It is noted that despite the fact that Russia does not fully control all four regions of Ukraine - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia - the Kremlin expects to take them within administrative boundaries.

“The constitution does not provide for a mechanism for regions to secede from Russia. We need the entire Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,” said an official close to the Kremlin.

According to another source, a current Russian official, the Kremlin hopes that Washington will likely put pressure on Kyiv to withdraw its troops from the Russian-occupied regions completely.

“Either Trump will influence them to leave, or they will tell us: “Engage in protracted negotiations and at the same time use military force to establish control.” This is the worst option for us, because forcing rivers is always a painful operation,” the source said.

At the same time, they announced that, as an alternative, Russia could try to seize part of Dnipropetrovsk or Sumy regions and then offer to exchange them for Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

• The U.S. President’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, stated that Crimea and “the so-called four regions: Donbas, Luhansk, and two others” are the main obstacles to resolving the war started by Russia. “I think the biggest issue in this conflict is the ‘four regions’ — Crimea, Donbas, Luhansk, and two others (likely referring to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — ed.). They are Russian-speaking, there were referendums where the overwhelming majority of people showed they want to be under Russian control. I believe this is the core issue of the conflict,” Witkoff stated.
• The European Commission noted that these “referendums” were held at gunpoint, so there was no expression of will.