Putin will never 'give up on Ukraine' as long as he's in the Kremlin, top Russia expert warns

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not give up on his goal of dominating Kyiv even if a deal is reached to end the war in Ukraine.

As long as Putin is in the Kremlin, he is not going to give up on Ukraine, which was where he served as a national intelligence officer.

He is not going to give up on his goal of having a pro-Russian government in Ukraine. He probably won't achieve it in the near future, but he's not going to give up on that.

He is determined to subordinate the Ukrainians and this is something that has driven him for years.

Russia has taken aggressive actions against Ukraine under Putin. Russia invaded Ukraine and took control of the peninsula. The war against Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine was supported by the Kremlin.

There is no separate Ukrainian identity that Putin believes, and he doesn't believe that Ukraine is an independent nation. The Russian leader has referred to Ukrainians and Russians as one people, and has suggested that the country is not a real country.

'I do not see this as a serious negotiation at this point'

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There were signs of progress this week in the talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Turkey.

The lead Russian negotiator is a former culture minister, and they are not serious about this. There was an apparent discrepancy between Medinsky's assessment of the talks and the Kremlin.

Medinsky in a statement on Russian television said thatUkraine has declared its readiness to fulfill those fundamental requirements that Russia has been demanding.

I don't think this is a serious negotiation at this point.

In recent days, Russia said it had ended the first phase of its special operation in Ukraine and would focus on the liberation of the Donbas. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference on Thursday that Russian units were not pulling out.

Putin launched a full-scale war in the Donbas in late February. The conflict has been disastrous for the Russian military, with thousands of battlefield casualties, including an astonishing number of generals.

It is too early to tell if Russia will make conquering the Donbas its primary aim. Some Russian troops were moving away from the capital, but fighting continued nearby.

The Russians are still attacking a lot of other cities in Ukraine.

There could be a long war of attrition in Ukraine, which could involve besieging cities and targeting areas populated by civilians, as Russia did in Chechnya and Syria.