Politico reports .
According to Politico , during a recent visit to Washington, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa said that Russia plans to intensify hostilities in the coming months. In particular, according to him, the Kremlin is considering a scenario of capturing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as early as this fall. After that, the creation of a buffer zone along Ukraine's northern border by the end of the year.
“Unfortunately, they are not talking about peace. They are preparing for war,” the publication quotes Palisa as saying.
Politico special attention to the forecasts for 2025. According to Palisa, Moscow has even more ambitious plans: to occupy the territory of Ukraine east of the Dnieper River, as well as completely seize the southern regions - Odessa and Mykolaiv. Such a move would effectively isolate Ukraine from the Black Sea - a strategic route for Ukrainian grain exports.
The publication also notes that, according to military analysts, Russia is preparing to accelerate the pace of offensive operations in the summer. At the same time, experts admit that maintaining such a pace until 2026 will be difficult even for the Russian army, given limited resources and depletion of reserves.
Despite diplomatic initiatives, including the Trump administration's attempts to launch a dialogue, the Kremlin's actions show no signs of willingness to compromise. Western analysts are convinced that Putin's main goals remain unchanged: the full integration of Ukraine into the Russian sphere of influence and the conclusion of a new agreement with the West that would revise the current security architecture in Europe.
Against the backdrop of these events, Russian media published the text of the Kremlin's so-called "memorandum" on the terms of the ceasefire. Among the demands put forward are the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, the cessation of mobilization in Ukraine, and even the beginning of demobilization.
The document also contains a requirement to hold presidential elections in Ukraine no later than 100 days after the lifting of martial law and before the signing of a peace treaty.
In parallel with the publication of the memorandum, Russia has intensified hostilities in the northern direction. According to the Ukrainian military, significant forces of the aggressor have been transferred to the Sumy region. This coincides with previous statements by the Kremlin about the creation of a so-called “buffer zone” along the Ukrainian-Russian border.
Analysts believe that this approach is another stage in Moscow's protracted strategy of gradually annexing territories and imposing on Kyiv a surrender scenario that is beneficial to Russia under the guise of a peace agreement.
