Putin Says Ukraine Will Lose Western Lands, Claims Left Bank Is Russian in 15 Years
Updated
Updated · Ukrainska Pravda · Jul 26
Putin Says Ukraine Will Lose Western Lands, Claims Left Bank Is Russian in 15 Years
2 articles · Updated · Ukrainska Pravda · Jul 26
Summary
Speaking to Russian Navy personnel, Vladimir Putin said Ukraine would "sooner or later" lose western regions once tied to Poland, Hungary and Romania, possibly within 1 to 15 years.
Putin paired that claim with assertions that left-bank Ukraine was historically part of Russia and that Moscow is merely restoring a "normal historical course."
He also denied Russia was the aggressor, repeated the Kremlin line that the war was forced on Moscow by the West and Kyiv, and cast Russia as Ukraine's only true territorial guarantor.
The remarks broadened his pseudo-historical justification for the invasion and ended with a prediction that Ukraine's forces would be defeated while Russia emerged victorious.