Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a closed-door meeting with entrepreneurs that Russia would give up its ambitions to seize Odessa, but only if Kiev recognizes all the occupied lands as Russian, digi24.ro reported.
The special correspondent of the newspaper “Kommersant“ Andrey Kolesnikov writes about this in his article. Putin said that Russia will not make claims to “Odessa and other territories“ of Ukraine, if during the peace talks Crimea, the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, as well as the illegally annexed Kherson and Zaporizhia regions are recognized as Russian territories.
During the closed part of the event, Putin spoke with the businessmen not about business, but about Ukraine and the peace talks. The Russian leader said at the meeting that now there is talk of recognizing Crimea, the LPR, the DPR, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions as part of Russia. The publication does not specify who should do this - only Ukraine or also the USA and Europe.
At the same time, the participants in the meeting noted the same thing: in their opinion, Vladimir Putin believes that it is possible to reach an agreement with Donald Trump.
The city of Odessa is strategically important, as it serves as one of Ukraine's main seaports for exporting grain and other goods. Access to the Black Sea and control over Odessa would be of great importance for Russia to weaken Ukraine economically and further control access to international trade.
Since the beginning of the war, Russia has repeatedly launched missile attacks on Odessa, causing serious damage to the city's infrastructure and civilian facilities. In addition, Putin's propagandists constantly claim on Russian television that Odessa is a Russian city.
Putin is currently negotiating with the Americans, but according to experts, he is deliberately prolonging the negotiation process without signing anything and without stopping the attacks on Ukraine, because he believes that time is running out. Putin has not given up on his original goal - the surrender of Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky recently stated that Ukraine will never recognize Crimea and other occupied lands as Russian territory.