June 21 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin hints at capturing another major Ukrainian city through military force.
“We don’t have a saying, or a parable, but an old rule — where the Russian soldier sets foot, that land is ours,” Putin said during an address at the St. Petersburg International
Economic Forum this week, the Russian state-run Tass News Agency reported.
“In this sense, the whole of Ukraine is ours,” Putin said, adding that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
The Russian President also indicated his country’s military forces could make a push to capture the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, the administrative center of the larger Sumy Oblast region.
“We don’t have a goal to grab Sumy. But I don’t exclude it in principle,” Putin said during the annual conference, which typically features an address by the Russian President.
Putin’s comments drew immediate rebuke from Ukrainian officials.
“Putin’s cynical statements demonstrate complete disdain for US peace efforts. While the United States and the rest of the world have called for an immediate end to the killing, Russia’s top war criminal discusses plans to seize more Ukrainian territory and kill more Ukrainians,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
Russia is already occupying the Ukrainian regions, or oblasts, of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
“The Russians once again openly and absolutely cynically declared that they are ‘not in the mood’ for a ceasefire. Russia wants to wage war. Even brandishing some threats,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video posted on X in a response to Putin’s comments.
“This means the pressure the world is applying isn’t hurting them enough yet, or they are trying very hard to keep up appearances. Well, the Russian economy is already crumbling. We will support this process even more. Ayatollah Putin can look at his friends in Iran to see where such regimes end up, and how far into decay they drive their countries.”
Zelensky also pushed back specifically on the threat against Sumy.
“The Russians had various plans and intentions there — absolutely insane, as usual. We are holding them back and eliminating these killers, defending our Sumy Oblast,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
