SerpApi.Org
While it’s hard to say Ukraine is truly “winning” the war, it would be equally unfair at this stage to suggest that it is losing.
Russia has taken enormous military and economic hits in recent weeks, thanks to Kyiv’s expanding long-range strike campaign.
But despite the losses and the setbacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly abandoned any willingness to return occupied Ukrainian territory as part of a future peace settlement.
According to a Bloomberg report published on Tuesday, July 21, citing people familiar with the Kremlin's thinking, Putin no longer intends to discuss territorial concessions and instead wants Russia to seize all of Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast before returning to meaningful negotiations.
The report also says the Kremlin now plans to permanently retain occupied areas of Ukraine's Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts as buffer zones along the Russian border.
The report claims that Putin has abandoned ideas he considered earlier, including potential compromises over territories presently occupied by Russian forces.
The Kremlin was reportedly leaning toward accepting informal understandings that Russia believed were reached during the 2025 summit with President Donald Trump in Anchorage.
Those understandings, if they were indeed real, have now fully collapsed, with Moscow now believing it is possible to maintain control of all presently occupied territory as well as the entirety of Donetsk Oblast.
The report also suggests that the Kremlin now sees Washington’s support for Ukraine, including the backing of new sanctions, as having fundamentally changed the diplomatic landscape.
What Bloomberg Just Reported
According to Bloomberg sources familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking, Putin no longer intends to return any occupied Ukrainian territory under a future negotiated peace agreement.
Instead, the immediate military objective being pursued now is the total capture of Donetsk Oblast, after which Russia would then be prepared to resume negotiations.
The report says that the Russian Ministry of Defense has convinced Putin that the objective could be achieved before the end of the year, though the sources also claimed that many military commanders believe that the timeline is unrealistic and that full control of the Donbas may only be possible sometime in 2027.
In addition to maintaining control of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as well as portions of Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, Bloomberg claims Russia now intends to permanently hold sections of Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts.
The regions are seen by the Kremlin as suitable buffer zones required to protect Russia’s border.
When asked about the report during his daily briefing on Tuesday, July 21, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claim, insisting that it should not be taken seriously and “belongs to the category of speculation.”
Moscow Is Responding to Washington
The report also suggested that the Kremlin’s new, harder negotiating position is largely a result of its belief that previous understandings with Washington have broken down.
Putin reportedly believed that the “spirit of Anchorage” - the informal framework that was discussed with President Donald Trump in August 2025 - no longer exists.
In June, however, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that no formal agreements were ever made during the Anchorage summit.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also acknowledged that there were no signed agreements, but did say that proposals were exchanged regardless.
The Russian interest in the so-called “spirit of Anchorage” points to the likelihood that Moscow believed it could depend on Washington to negotiate more favorably toward its goals once it had established more favorable conditions on the front lines first.
Peace Talks Just Got More Complicated
If true, the development would represent one of the clearest indications yet that it expects to win the conflict on the battlefield, or at least capture Donetsk Oblast, even in the face of ongoing Ukrainian strikes.
If that is indeed the case, it also means the Kremlin has a new escalation planned that would either bolster Russian capabilities on the front line or diminish Ukraine’s.
Notably, the report also serves as a signal to Ukraine.
Russia may be denying it, but the effect is that Kyiv and Washington now have reason to believe that the Kremlin is not only planning a major new escalation, but that it will respond to efforts to weaken its position by hardening its stance again and again.
The Kremlin may, therefore, be looking to convince Kyiv that continued resistance, even if it results in some military and economic victories against Moscow, will only result in even greater losses in the future.
The message is this: Ukraine continues fighting, and Russia takes more of its territory to ensure a “buffer zone” around the new border - and no negotiations will take place until Russia finishes the job.
Can It Work?
Whether the strategy succeeds is another matter entirely, of course.
Kyiv knows that, at present, Russia lacks the manpower and the defense capabilities to both go on the attack and protect itself against ongoing Ukrainian strikes - but that could all change with a mobilization of troops or a new assault from the north.
About the Author: Jack Buckby
Jack Buckby is a British researcher and analyst specializing in defense and national security, based in New York. His work focuses on military capability, procurement, and strategic competition, producing and editing analysis for policy and defense audiences. He brings extensive editorial experience, with a career output spanning over 1,000 articles at 19FortyFive and National Security Journal, and has previously authored books and papers on extremism and deradicalization.
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