Putin’s Negotiator: Every Centimeter of Russian Land Will Return

Despite reported progress in Abu Dhabi and Moscow talks, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky stated that "every centimeter" of land Moscow considers Russian "will return to Russia," indicating unchanged maximalist demands. Medinsky, who co-authors Russian school history books, has long claimed all of Ukraine is artificially created from "historically Russian territories." His ideology frames Russian expansion as reclaiming territory, not conquest. A reported Russian proposal demands all of Donbas, demilitarization of Odesa and Mykolaiv ports, no NATO bases in the Baltics, Finland leaving NATO, and territorial restructuring of Moldova. These were the first talks since February.