Putin confident he will seize four regions by end of year – Bloomberg
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is confident that the occupation forces will allegedly be able to break through Ukraine's defense by the end of 2025 and take full control of the four regions he has declared "Russian". This was reported by Bloomberg, citing an unnamed person familiar with the Russian dictator's position.
"Vladimir Putin believes he is in a strong position ahead of a phone call with Donald Trump on Monday [May 19], and European leaders are trying to prevent the US president from rushing to a deal,".
says
The source told the journalists about Putin's confidence in the ability of the Russian army to fully occupy Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
This means that Putin is unlikely to offer any significant concessions to Trump during the conversation, and European officials are concerned that the US president may try to force a deal anyway, Bloomberg writes.
According to two other sources close to the Kremlin, despite all the talk of a cessation of hostilities, Putin is ready for a protracted war if necessary to achieve his goals, and he is optimistic about the prospect of further US sanctions.
However, Putin's confidence in Russia's prospects on the battlefield contradicts Western assessments. Having suffered "enormous" losses during more than three years of fighting, Russia does not have the capacity to achieve Putin's goals, European officials say.
"The probability that Russia will achieve its goals of conquering these four regions by the end of this year is very low. If the Ukrainian defense fails, it would be very easy to gain such an advantage, but at the moment this scenario seems very unlikely," said Ben Barry, Senior Fellow for Land Warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
According to an interlocutor close to the Russian Defense Ministry, this skepticism is also shared by many Russian military personnel fighting against Ukraine. In particular, according to him, Ukrainian drones have made Russia's large-scale offensive operations expensive and ineffective.
A senior European government official told reporters that during a phone call on Friday, May 16, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer tried to make it clear to Trump that Putin was deceiving him.
They hope that Trump will realize that he "risks looking like a failure" if he imposes a bad deal on Ukraine, the official added .
According to European officials with knowledge of the matter, U.S. officials have privately told European counterparts that Trump is considering allowing the sanctions bill drafted by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to move forward if Russia does not budge, and he can tell Putin he cannot prevent it.
- At talks in Istanbul on May 16, the Russian delegation voiced things that are unacceptable for Ukraine .
- Zelensky told Vance and Rubio about this, as well as about Moscow's violation of the ceasefire it had proposed. The President emphasized that such behavior shows that "Moscow has no intention of ending the war." .
- According to former spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces Vladislav Seleznyov, Putin will continue the war against Ukraine until he gains full control of the desired territories or runs out of resources.
