A senior Kremlin official said today that Russian police and the National Guard will remain in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas and monitor it even if a peace deal ends Russia's nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
This was said by Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov, and his words indicate Moscow's ambition to maintain a presence in Donbas after the war.
Moscow will approve a ceasefire only when Ukrainian forces withdraw from the front line, Ushakov said today in statements reported by the Russian business daily Kommersant.
He told Kommersant that "it is entirely possible that there will be no troops at all (in Donbas), neither Russian nor Ukrainian" in a post-war scenario. But, he added, there will be "the National Guard, our police and everything necessary to maintain order and organized life."
Ukraine is likely to reject such a position, while peace talks in Ukraine led by the United States (US) continue.
American negotiators have been trying for months to reconcile the two sides' demands as US President Donald Trump pushes for a quick end to the Russian war and grows increasingly frustrated by the delays.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that Ukrainian troops have recaptured several towns and neighborhoods near the city of Kupyansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, after a months-long operation aimed at reclaiming territory seized by Russian forces in the area.
In recent months, Kupyansk has been one of the central sectors of fighting along a 1.000-kilometer front line and a 40-square-kilometer advance that Ukraine claims it has made, which would represent a setback for Russia.
Less than two months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukrainian troops were surrounded in Kupyansk and offered to negotiate their surrender. Putin is trying to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength in the war.
The search for a possible ceasefire has hit a major hurdle over the question of who holds the Ukrainian territory that Russian forces have so far occupied.
Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and Russian-backed separatists seized territory in the east later that year, as well as territory captured after the start of the Russian invasion in February 2024, Russia has occupied about 20 percent of Ukrainian territory.
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