Russia might try to take Ukraine city Sumy: Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he did not “rule out” his forces attempting to seize the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, raising fresh doubts over the prospect of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

Diplomatic efforts to end the three-year conflict have stalled in recent weeks and Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging a peace deal to prolong its full-scale offensive on the country.

Russia currently occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and has claimed four Ukrainian regions as its own since launching its assault in 2022, in addition to Crimea, which it captured in 2014.

The Sumy region is not one of the regions Moscow has formally annexed, although Russian forces have recently made inroads there for the first time in three years.

At Russia’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, Putin suggested Moscow could take Sumy as part of a “buffer zone” along the border and repeated his denial of Ukrainian statehood.

“We have no objective to take Sumy, but in principle I do not rule it out... They pose a constant threat to us, constantly shelling the border areas,” Putin said.

“I consider Russians and Ukrainians to be one people. In that sense, all of Ukraine is ours,” he told attendees, when asked why his army was entering areas Moscow did not claim as its own.

“There is a saying: where ever a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours.”

Sumy is around 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Russian border and has been heavily targeted throughout the conflict.

Putin’s widening territorial ambitions are likely to roil Kyiv, which has accused Moscow of not wanting to end the fighting.

The two sides held rounds of direct talks in Istanbul in May and in June, but Kyiv accused Moscow of sending “dummy” negotiators with no real power to enact a peace deal.

Putin has declined to take part in the peace talks in person and on Thursday said he would only meet Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky during a “final phase” of negotiations on ending the three-year conflict.

He has also insisted Ukraine give up territory it already controls for peace.

Kyiv says it cannot and will not accept Russian occupation of any part of its land. In his address Friday, Putin denied he was calling for Ukraine to “capitulate”.

“We are not seeking Ukraine’s surrender. We insist on recognition of the realities that have developed on the ground,” the Russian leader said.

Putin repeated that Moscow was “advancing on all fronts” and that his troops had penetrated up to 12 kilometres (seven miles) into the Sumy region. He also accused Kyiv of “stupidity” by launching an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last August.

“They are creating problems for themselves,” he said. Russia has for months been rejecting calls for an unconditional ceasefire, launching deadly attacks on its neighbour.

On the other hand, Russia’s Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, who has led the state’s efforts to seize property worth 2.4 trillion roubles ($31 billion), on Friday said foreign companies that return to the country would be watched closely to ensure Russia benefited.

Moscow has placed around a dozen foreign-owned assets under state management in the more than three years that Russia has been fighting in Ukraine and prosecutors have stepped up the seizure of domestic assets through the courts this year.

Now, as the economy begins to slow after two years of growth fuelled by high military spending, Russian officials are trying to find the balance between insulating the economy from exposure to Western nations it considers unfriendly and the need for growth to keep funding the conflict in Ukraine.

“We will closely follow the government’s actions,” Krasnov said. “That is, who will come... on what terms they will come.”

“We will definitely look at making sure that the conditions under which our (Russian) business operates are better (when Western business returns),” Krasnov said. It must be profitable for Russia’s own firms, he said.

Russia is prioritising domestic companies, some of whom have taken market share vacated by Western firms, such as McDonald’s and Unilever, that have left since Russia launched the conflict in Ukraine.

Agencies