10:59 04-12-2025

Putin Warns Ukraine: Leave Territories or Face Force

In India Today interview, Vladimir Putin says Ukrainian troops must leave territories or Russian forces will retake them, calling a settlement difficult.

In an interview with the India Today channel, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukrainian forces would either withdraw from the territories they currently control on their own, or those areas would be taken by the Russian Armed Forces through military action. He linked this scenario to an end to the killing of civilians, stressing that, in his view, the presence of Ukrainian troops on these territories is directly tied to ongoing bloodshed.

Putin noted that reaching any kind of consensus between the parties on how to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end remains a difficult task. According to him, this topic also arose during his meeting with the special envoy of the US president, Steve Witkoff, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The discussions, he said, touched on American initiatives on Ukraine, some of which Moscow rejected, and these points of disagreement became the focus of detailed talks.

Putin is scheduled to visit India on 4–5 December at the invitation of the country’s prime minister. Ahead of this trip, he gave an interview to representatives of the Indian media.