Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s statehood could suffer an “irreparable blow” if the war continued at this rate and that Russia could never be forced to leave the “liberated” territories, Reuters reported.

The Kremlin leader’s comments came just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss a possible peace formula based on Zelenskyi’s 10-point plan from November 2022.

But Putin on Tuesday dismissed any talk of what he called “so-called peace formulas” and the “prohibitive demands” they contain.

“Well, if they (non-Ukrainians) don’t want to negotiate (with Russia), then don’t do it! Now it is quite obvious not only that the Ukrainian counteroffensive failed, but also that the initiative is completely in the hands of the Russian armed forces. If this continues, Ukrainian statehood may be dealt an irreparable, very serious blow,” said Vladimir Putin.

Reuters notes that Putin’s statements in recent months show he is growing more confident as Kyiv’s forces failed to deliver a decisive blow to Russia’s military last summer and new military aid to Ukraine has been blocked by both the United States and the European Union.

Putin says that it is “impossible” for Russia to give up the occupied territories

On Tuesday, Putin also said that talk of “negotiations” was nothing more than “an attempt to convince us to give up the gains we made in the last year and a half.”

“But it’s impossible. Everyone understands that this is impossible,” the Russian president added. Currently, the armed forces of Moscow control 17.5% of the territory of Ukraine.

Among the proposals put forward by Zelensky in the peace formula is the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of his country.

However, Moscow has repeatedly stated that any negotiations will have to start from the premise of “new realities”, i.e. Kyiv’s acceptance of the loss of the territories that Putin declared annexed to Russia in September 2022: Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

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