Putin Oaths Will Win Donbas After All

Russian President Vladimir Putin/PHOTO via Instagram @russian_kremlin

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would seize the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine " no matter how," including by military means.

Putin stressed one of his main demands amid preparations by Ukrainian officials for the next round of peace negotiations that have yet to come to an agreement.

Putin is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on Thursday, December 4. He will be greeted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two days after a meeting in the Kremlin with a US delegation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials will depart for the US on Thursday. They were invited to negotiate with their Americans over plans to end the Moscow war, a Ukrainian source familiar with the situation told CNN.

Ahead of Modi's summit, Putin in an interview with India Today, said Russia would "free Donbas and Novorossiya in any way military or other way," according to Russian state media TASS.

One of the Kremlin's biggest demands is for Ukraine to give up territory in the Donbas region, which has been illegally annexed by Russia but has not yet been completely conquered.

Novorossiya, or New Russia, is a historical term that refers to the regions to the west during the time of the Rusin Empire.

Putin has revived the term, and used it when declaring Ukraine's Crimean peninsula as part of Russia in 2014.

Putin also said his meeting in Moscow on Tuesday with Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, lasted a long time as both sides had to "discuss every point of the peace proposal," according to TASS.