Putin is no longer ready to discuss a land swap and still intends to take control of the entire Donbas, Bloomberg writes.

According to the publication, the Russian leadership does not intend to return the occupied territories to Ukraine. This primarily concerns small parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which American mediators had proposed exchanging in order to reach a peace agreement, Bild reports. The Russian side had previously expressed readiness to discuss this option, but now considers the informal agreements on the matter reached in Alaska during talks with the United States to have lapsed. The Kremlin wants to keep the occupied territories as a buffer zone.

In addition, Putin still seeks to take full control of the Donetsk region. Apparently, only after that does he intend to resume negotiations.