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By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
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The Kremlin is done seizing territory from Ukraine, a Russian spokesperson said Thursday.
Russia began an aggressive mobilization in Ukraine at the start of the war on February 24, and Ukraine launched a strong counteroffensive that has mostly succeeded in pushing Russian forces from Ukrainian territories such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Izium. Now, the Kremlin is shifting its focus back to its original goals of the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia has no plans to seize more territory from Ukraine. According to Reuters, Russia instead will focus its efforts to liberate the four territories it annexed from Ukraine in September—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Foreign governments, including the United States, said the move is illegitimate.
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In November, Russia withdrew its forces from Kherson, the only regional capital the Kremlin had maintained since the war began. Despite withdrawing its forces from Kherson, Russia continues to say that the territory is under control of the Russian Federation.
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Ukrainian forces continue fighting to reclaim the territories.
"But there is nevertheless a lot of work ahead to liberate the territories; in a number of new regions of the Russian Federation there are occupied territories that have to be liberated," Peskov said.
Peskov said the area specifically needing liberation was Donetsk, which he said was reoccupied by Ukrainian troops after it was annexed.
Despite Russia's annexation of the territories, the Kremlin does not maintain military control in the areas, as shown by Ukrainian forces retaking Kherson and continuing to fight in Zaporizhzhia.
According to CNN, Ukraine said some Russian forces were withdrawing from Zaporizhzhia this month. Zaporizhzhia has been a conflicted territory since the start of the war, subjecting the nuclear power plant there to shelling with its proximity to the war's front lines.
Rather than focusing its energy on securing Ukrainian territory, Peskov said the Kremlin will continue with its "demilitarization and denazification" goals, which it has maintained since it launched the invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin has often referred to the Ukrainian government and its armed forces as neo-Nazis.
Newsweek reached out to the Center for Strategic and International Studies for comment.
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