Russia is no longer willing to return any occupied Ukrainian territory under a potential ceasefire deal and plans to keep captured areas as 'buffer zones,' Bloomberg reported, citing three sources close to the Kremlin.
According to the agency's interlocutors, Vladimir Putin still intends to establish full control over the Donetsk region and keep the captured parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions under Russian control. Two sources said the Kremlin is ready to return to negotiations only after achieving that goal.
The sources attributed the hardening of Moscow's position to the collapse of informal agreements 'in the spirit of Anchorage' — which Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed at a summit in Alaska. Publicly, the Kremlin described those agreements as a unilateral exchange: according to Moscow's version, Ukraine was to give up the Donbas in return for the return of occupied areas of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions. Washington denied the existence of any deal.
Russia's Defense Ministry assured Putin it could establish control over the Donetsk region by the end of the year, one Bloomberg source said. However, a source close to the military department called that timeline unrealistic, saying many military officials believe the operation may only be completed in 2027.
According to Bloomberg, Moscow's shift was prompted by increasingly frequent Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia, including on Moscow and oil refineries. An additional factor was Trump's support for a sanctions bill that would impose tariffs of up to 100% on the largest buyers of Russian oil and gas.