Russian President Putin met with US envoy Vitkov and Trump's son-in-law Kushner at the Kremlin on December 2, stating that Russia has accepted some of the US proposals on the Ukraine issue and negotiations should continue. (Agence France Presse)

Russian President Putin has stated that Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the Donbass region, otherwise Russia will seize the entire Donbass region by force or other means.

The Donbass region is composed of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast, where separatist elements supported by Russia have been in conflict with the Ukrainian army for many years.

According to Reuters, Putin said in a segment of an interview with Indian media broadcasted on Russian state television on Thursday (December 4), "Either we liberate these areas by force, or the Ukrainian army withdraws from the area

Putin accepted this interview before visiting India.

Ukraine is unwilling to give up the territories that the Russian military failed to seize on the battlefield. Ukrainian President Zelensky said that no rewards should be given to the Russian side that provoked the war.

According to reports, Russia currently controls 19.2% of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea, the entire Luhansk region, 80% of the Dolensk region, approximately 75% of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as parts of Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Donetsk's approximately 5000 square kilometers of territory are still under the control of Ukraine.

The report pointed out that during the negotiations on the framework of the Russia Ukraine peace agreement promoted by the Trump administration, Moscow repeatedly expressed its desire to control the entire Donbass region and demanded that the United States informally recognize Moscow's control.

In 2022, after holding a referendum in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russia announced that these areas would be incorporated into Russia. However, both the West and Kiev referred to it as a false referendum. Most countries recognize that these regions and Crimea belong to Ukraine.

Putin met with US envoy Vitkov and Trump's son-in-law Kushner at the Kremlin on Tuesday (2nd), stating that Russia has accepted some of the US proposals regarding Ukraine and negotiations should continue.