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Kremlin Repeats Demand for Ukraine’s Donbas Withdrawal for the Third Time in a Week
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Russian officials have publicly repeated the same condition three times in the past seven days, demanding that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the entire Donbas region. The demand was framed as a prerequisite for a ceasefire and continued peace talks, according to The Moscow Times on May 13.
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov delivered the demand, urging Volodymyr Zelenskyy to order Ukrainian troops to withdraw from both Donbas and the territory Moscow currently considers its own.
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"Zelenskyy must order Ukraine's armed forces to ceasefire and leave the territory of Donbas, leave the territory of Russian regions. At that moment a ceasefire will begin and the sides can calmly engage in negotiations," Peskov stated.
A similar position was advanced by Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov on Sunday, who declared that further rounds of talks would be meaningless until Ukrainian forces left Donbas. Ushakov added that Kyiv understood the necessity but, with European backing, refused even to open discussion on the step. Three days earlier, he tied any continuation of the trilateral track directly to such a withdrawal.
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Peskov also cautioned that even a voluntary Ukrainian pullout would not produce easy diplomacy, noting that subsequent negotiations would "inevitably be very difficult" and contain a large number of important details.
The Kremlin's hardening posture appears anchored in a shifting battlefield assessments. Russian military leaders reportedly persuaded the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, that Moscow can fully occupy Donbas by autumn, according to the Financial Times.
The assessment followed earlier signs that Putin had appeared open to freezing the war along the current front line during talks with US President Donald Trump.
Sources cited in the report noted that Putin repeatedly rejected proposals to halt the war where the armies now stand. Russian officials reportedly believe that capturing the rest of Donetsk and Luhansk regions would allow Moscow to demand broader concessions from Kyiv and its partners.
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