Listen to Putin: Russia Does Not Want to End the War; It Seeks Ukraine’s Captivity

I’ve been pointing out this since at least the latest iteration of Russia’s war against Ukraine that everything that Moscow says about wanting to end the war that it started is a lie. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s meant to cover its real tracks and deflect attention away from its proclaimed goal: the restoration of imperial mother Russia and the resubjugation of Ukraine and the other former captive nations. It’s also meant to pacify its naive advocates in the west like President Donald Trump.

The latest imperial declaration came from Russian fuhrer Vladimir Putin who rejected any prospect of peace talks with Ukraine during his phone call with President Trump before Moscow killed at least 20 Ukrainians in strikes early Saturday, October 10, according to the New York Post.

The Russian dictator said he would continue fighting with Kyiv until he has achieved “all his objectives,” during a Friday call with Trump that lasted an hour and a half.

“Putin made it clear that Moscow will continue hostilities until it achieves all stated goals,” Russian foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told state media.

Putin also tries to convince Trump that Ukraine had “no prospects whatsoever” and that Russia has the outcome of the war “entirely in their hands.

In other words, Ushakov and Putin have convinced Trump that Ukraine doesn’t have the cards and numbers to subdue Russia and end the war. Fortunately, current events show an opposite reality.

The statements from top Russian leadership consistently demonstrate that the Kremlin’s strategic goal is not a negotiated compromise, but the total political and territorial subjugation of Ukraine and enslavement of Ukrainians.

Here are 12 key quotes by Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Lavrov, and Dmitry Peskov that outline this maximalist doctrine:

Vladimir Putin (President of Russia)

1. On rejecting peace talks and pushing for full objectives:

"Russia remains determined to achieve all its objectives in Ukraine through military action... peace talks are out of the question as long as Kyiv refuses to recognize geopolitical realities."

— Reaffirmed in Kremlin readouts and calls with international leaders regarding peace proposals.

2. Denying Ukrainian statehood and sovereignty:

"Ukrainians and Russians are one people... Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood. Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, or more precisely, by Communist Russia."

— Address to the Nation, February 21, 2022

3. Demanding full territorial surrender and capitulation as preconditions:

"Ukrainian troops must be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions... As soon as Kyiv declares it is ready for such a decision, an order to cease fire will immediately follow."

— Speech to Russian Foreign Ministry officials, June 14, 2024

4. Framing the war as a historic re-conquest of Russian lands:

"Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years... He was not taking anything away; he was returning and strengthening. It has also fallen to us to return and strengthen."

— Meeting with young entrepreneurs in Moscow, June 9, 2022

Dmitry Medvedev (Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia)

1. On the total erasure of the Ukrainian state:

"Ukraine is definitely Russia... The concept that 'Ukraine is not Russia' needs to disappear forever. Ukraine must come back home."

— Speech at the World Youth Festival in Sochi, March 4, 2024

2. Viewing peace talks merely as a vehicle for complete capitulation:

"The point of holding negotiations is not compromise, but to ensure a swift and complete Russian victory and the full capitulation of the regime in Kyiv."

— Public statement following regional peace summits, June 2025

3. Declaring Russia's existential refusal to allow an independent Ukraine:

"The existence of an independent state on historical Russian territories will now be a permanent pretext for the resumption of combat operations... No matter who is at the helm of the illegal political entity called Ukraine, its existence will always be fatal for Ukrainians."

— Telegram Post, January 17, 2024

4. Rejecting any permanent peace short of full absorption:

"Will Russia stop? No. We will push further until the current band of Ukrainian nationalists is fully eliminated and the territory is entirely absorbed into Russia."

— Telegram Channel Statement, July 2024

Sergey Lavrov (Minister of Foreign Affairs)

1. Demanding regime change in Kyiv:

"We are determined to help the people of Eastern Europe liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime in Kyiv."

— Speech at the Arab League summit in Cairo, July 24, 2022

2. Refusing Western and Ukrainian peace frameworks:

"There can be no talk of negotiations based on Zelenskyy's 'peace formula' or any initiative that attempts to restore Ukraine’s 1991 borders. That reality is gone forever."

— Press Conference at the United Nations, September 2023

Dmitry Peskov (Press Secretary for the Kremlin)

1. Dismissing freeze or ceasefire options:

"For Russia, the main thing is to achieve our goals. A simple freeze of the conflict is unacceptable to us. We must achieve what was announced at the outset."

— Kremlin press briefings on ceasefires, May 2024

2. Asserting that military victory is the only path forward:

"The Special Military Operation will continue until all set targets are achieved, because there are currently no grounds for peaceful agreements."

— Statement to news agencies, Moscow, October 2024.

By discounting Kyiv’s legitimate and justified goal of liberating all of Ukraine from Russian occupation, Trump and his administration have joined, on the eve of the elections, Putin and Russia in defeating and enslaving Ukraine. Ukrainian American voters won’t forgive that.