Russia Demands Ukraine Quit 2 Donbas Cities for Settlement as Putin Says War Nears End
Updated
Updated · War On The Rocks · May 14
Russia Demands Ukraine Quit 2 Donbas Cities for Settlement as Putin Says War Nears End
3 articles · Updated · War On The Rocks · May 14
Yuri Ushakov said any peace settlement would stall unless Ukraine withdraws from Donbas, specifically from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk—two cities Russian forces do not control.
The demand came a day after Vladimir Putin said the war was "heading to an end" at a May 9 parade held under heavy security and stripped of tanks and missile carriers.
Russian battlefield progress remains slow: forces seized about 3,600 square kilometers in 2024 at roughly 15 to 70 meters a day, while losses since February 2022 have reached about 1.3 million casualties.
Pro-war military blogger Yuri Kotenok described worsening command failures, manpower shortages and communications breakdowns, saying frontline reporting has devolved into "circular lying."
The report argues Moscow is pairing maximalist terms with tighter domestic control—expanding FSB powers, approving a 4,000-bed detention center and rolling out veteran co-optation programs as the war drags on.
Is Russia's military stalemate a strategic failure, or a deliberate tactic to enable a totalitarian transformation at home?
With Ukraine deploying robotic armies, can Russia's technologically lagging military survive this new era of AI warfare?