Putin Won't Settle Ukraine Until Donetsk Falls, Analysis Says — SkimNews
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- Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow to meet Putin, then to Kyiv for talks with Zelensky, who said the pair presented "worthwhile ideas" but offered no breakthrough.
- Putin's stated core goals are Ukrainian neutrality, a treaty against NATO expansion, and the political removal of Zelensky — and the piece argues he will outlast Kyiv and Europe in patience and resources.
- The Anchorage compromise Trump floated — shared control of unoccupied Donetsk — collapsed because the president lacked leverage to bring Europeans or Zelensky on board, leaving "palpable disappointment" on the Russian side.
- Russian forces are refocusing on the remaining Donetsk fortress towns of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, with improvements in tank armor blunting Ukraine's drone defenses; estimates for seizing Donetsk range from end of 2025 through end of 2027.
- Zelensky faces mounting pressure to step aside amid corruption scandals and vocal opposition from figures including former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
- Trump's leverage in Europe has been shredded by the Iran conflict, per the analysis, making it near-impossible to shift British and Polish resistance to compromise — both Sawers and Sikorski publicly oppose talks on current terms.
- Indian Prime Minister Modi renewed his call at the Shanghai Cooperation Meeting in Bishkek for Putin to move from "an endless war to the end to the war"; 51 Indian nationals recruited into Russian forces have been killed since fighting began.
Why it matters: The piece frames the timeline in concrete terms: capturing Donetsk could take through end of 2027, during which Ukraine's already-decimated electricity infrastructure will face another harsh winter and Europe's proxy-war funding will be tested. Trump wanted peace before midterms to boost his polling, but his leverage is gone and European leaders (Sawers, Sikorski) are openly refusing to compromise — meaning the diplomatic track now runs through non-Western capitals like Delhi and Beijing, not Washington.
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