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Moscow has hoped to mend relations with the United States while continuing to wage war in Ukraine, but Mr. Putin’s insistence on pushing his offensive has come at a diplomatic cost.
June 20, 2025Updated 2:06 p.m. ET
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday doubled down on his justification for the war in Ukraine, saying that Russians and Ukrainians were one people “and in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours” as he suggested the Russian military may yet capture more territory.
Speaking at an annual economic conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, he did not rule out Russian forces taking control of the large Ukrainian city of Sumy. A Russian offensive in northern Ukraine has put its forces about 12 miles outside the city’s center.
“We don’t have a goal to grab Sumy,” Mr. Putin said. “But I don’t exclude it in principle.”
“Wherever a Russian soldier steps foot, that’s ours,” he added.
Mr. Putin’s insistence on maintaining the offensive in Ukraine has come at a diplomatic cost. President Trump’s election last year gave Russia hope that it could restore economic and diplomatic ties with the United States while continuing to wage war in Ukraine, but Mr. Trump has become inpatient with the Russia’s insistence on continuing the war.
The Russian president made clear that he had no intentions of soon ending the war. But it was less clear whether Mr. Putin, whose comments came in response to a question about his military’s ultimate goals in Ukraine, was suggesting that Russia would annex additional territory beyond the four Ukraine regions that it has already declared are officially part of Russia.
In peace talks, the Kremlin has insisted on formal recognition of sovereignty over those regions — one of several positions that are unacceptable to the Ukrainian government. But since those annexations, Russian forces have pushed into three additional regions.
