Putin Tells US Envoys the Only Demarcation Line With Ukraine Is the State Border
Russian President Vladimir Putin set out his position on the territorial question when he met US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow on November 12. According to the Kremlin's record of the meeting and RIA Novosti reporting, Putin said that for Russia there is only one line of demarcation with Ukraine: the state border. Only then, he said, would it be clear and understandable who is on which side; as soon as talks turn to so-called gray zones, arguments begin at once, any agreements become unstable, and there will be no lasting peace.
The state border as defined in Russian law includes the four Ukrainian regions Russia unilaterally declared annexed in 2022 - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson - which Russian forces do not fully control. Ukraine and Western governments reject those annexations as illegal. An assessment published on November 12 by the Institute for the Study of War said Putin's statement means he is refusing to accept a demilitarized zone or gray zones in post-war Ukraine and is insisting that Ukraine hand over the parts of the four regions that Russian forces have not seized.
At the same meeting, Putin also reiterated that foreign troops in Ukraine are unacceptable to Russia and, according to reports, offered a limited humanitarian arrangement to let civilians leave a frontline city. GSM's earlier story on the meeting covered Putin's remarks on lasting peace and foreign troops; this follow-up adds the territorial demarcation line from the Kremlin record. The meeting came a day after trilateral talks among Russian, Ukrainian and US delegations in Abu Dhabi ended without a breakthrough, though the sides agreed in principle to a large prisoner exchange; Witkoff and Kushner then travelled to Dublin to brief Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Related: Putin meets Witkoff and Kushner at the Kremlin
Abu Dhabi talks produce agreement in principle on a large prisoner exchange
(Source: The Kremlin)
Source: The Kremlin
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：莫斯科克里姆林宫参议院宫（资料图）。照片：Alexxx1979 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Senate Palace of the Moscow Kremlin (file photo). Photo by Alexxx1979, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
