Vladimir Putin claimed Russian forces have taken control of the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, as he sought to convey confidence ahead of a key meeting on Tuesday with the US delegation to discuss a possible peace deal to end the war.
The Russian president, dressed in military fatigues, during a visit to a command center on Monday evening hailed the “significant” capture of Pokrovsk – once a major logistics hub for the Ukrainian military – although Ukrainian officials later denied the claim.
“I want to thank you. This is an important direction. We all understand how important it is,” Putin told his top officials in a video released by the Kremlin. “This will ensure solutions to the tasks that we set at the beginning of the special military operation,” he said, using the Kremlin’s preferred term for the nearly four-year offensive.
Ukraine’s military on Tuesday denied the fall of Pokrovsk, saying its forces remained in control of the northern part of the city.
Speaking in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that Russia had “made some progress and carried out a number of offensive actions and operations”, but stressed that “none of these operations have been successful”.
Russia has spent more than a year attempting to seize the frontline hub seen as a gateway to Donetsk and has suffered heavy losses in the process.
Ukrainian analysts and military bloggers have acknowledged that Russia now controls most of Pokrovsk, with battlefield maps showing its forces largely in control.
Putin’s carefully choreographed appearance with the military came on the eve of talks with the US delegation led by Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Witkoff, accompanied by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, arrived in Moscow on Tuesday after discussing a possible negotiated settlement with Ukrainian officials in Florida.
A team of senior Ukrainian envoys met with US officials on Sunday to discuss proposed amendments to a 28-point peace plan developed in earlier US-Russia contacts, a roadmap to peace that dramatically favors Moscow.
In Paris, Zelensky said the updated version of the peace proposal “looks better” but stressed that it was “not finished yet”.
Zelensky traveled to Ireland on Tuesday for further meetings, as part of a broader effort to drum up European support.
Many analysts believe that substantial changes to the original document are unlikely to be acceptable to the Kremlin, casting doubt on the prospects for real progress in the talks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Putin and Vitkoff would discuss the “understanding” recently reached between Washington and Kiev, adding that Russia is ready for talks but will insist on achieving the goals of its “special operation.”
Those goals include sweeping demands that would seriously erode Ukraine’s sovereignty, including drastic reductions in its armed forces, restrictions on Western military aid, far-reaching limits on political freedoms, and the ceding of Ukrainian-controlled territory in the country’s east.
Echoing senior officials, Russian state media spoke in a particularly boastful tone ahead of the US visit. Komsomolskaya Pravda, often described as “Putin’s favorite newspaper”, wrote that the president’s comments showed that “more and more Ukrainian territories are coming under our control – and Russia’s conditions may be stricter next time”.
The newspaper also said Moscow sees the latest US-Ukrainian talks as an impasse, claiming Kiev is refusing to surrender: “The US has tried for the third time in the past 10 days to put pressure on Ukraine, and Washington has once again failed.”
Putin has signaled that the Russian military is prepared to continue fighting if diplomacy falters, claiming his forces remain on the offensive on the battlefield.
<a href