Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address that since the start of the full-scale war, Russia’s political leadership, which he said is “obsessed with Donbas,” has postponed the deadline for fully capturing the region 15 times.
According to Zelensky, in 2026 the Russian authorities again changed the date by which they expect to take control of the Donetsk region. He said the initial target date was March 31, then it was moved to September 1, and now a new deadline has been set for December 31.
“At first they had until March 31 of this year, then until September 1, and now the final deadline is December 31,” Zelensky said.
He added that if Russia does not end the war, that deadline too will have to be moved again. Zelensky also said that Ukraine has already submitted all of its proposals to end the war, but that Russia has rejected them each time.
The Ukrainian president said that the previous day there had been “a clear desire to keep fighting” from the Russian side. In his view, that means as many obstacles as possible must be created to hinder any further continuation of the war.
“Accordingly, it is necessary to create as many obstacles as possible to the desire to keep fighting,” the Ukrainian leader said.
The report notes that this was likely a reference to remarks by Vladimir Putin in an interview with propagandist Pavel Zarubin. Putin was reported as saying that Ukraine had made a new peace proposal that envisioned both sides halting strikes deep into each other’s territory. The Kremlin rejected that proposal.