Putin unlikely to stop even if Russia takes all of Donetsk — ISW

The Institute for the Study of War assessed on September 6 that visits by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv exposed how little Vladimir Putin is willing to compromise, and how far his actual demands exceed simply taking Donetsk Oblast. ISW pointed to ongoing Russian offensives in Sumy, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhya oblasts as evidence Moscow is pursuing objectives, like a border buffer zone, that have nothing to do with finishing off Donbas.

Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said after the September 6 talks that Putin gave the envoys a comprehensive account of Russia's battlefield successes and reiterated the need to address the war's so-called root causes. ISW said those success claims are exaggerated and inconsistent with actual front-line developments, and that the root-causes language remains Kremlin code for demands amounting to Ukrainian capitulation, including withdrawal from territory Russia doesn't even occupy and permanent exclusion from NATO.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during the Kyiv leg of the envoys' trip, called the Donbas fight an issue of survival rather than territory alone. ISW's conclusion: even total capture of Donetsk Oblast, an outcome it considers unlikely, would not end the war.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.