"The talks actually started immediately after the start of the special military operation. From the very beginning, we told the then-Ukrainian authorities that people in the Lugansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic did not want to be part of Ukraine. Withdraw, and that will be it; everything will be over, no combat actions, no war," Putin said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin.
"They cannot exist; they will not last a month if the money stops, and in a broad sense, the ammunition. It will all be over in a month, a month and a half, or two. In this sense, Ukraine's sovereignty is almost non-existent," Putin said.
"If we start negotiations now, they will be illegitimate. There is a problem here, though I didn't mention it. Why? Because when the current head of the regime, as he can only be called today, signed this decree, he was a relatively legitimate president. And now he cannot cancel it because it is illegitimate. That is the thing, the trap," the Russian leader said.
"It is possible to negotiate with anyone, but due to his illegitimacy, he [Zelensky] has no right to sign anything … The issue of the final signing of the documents is a very serious matter that should guarantee the security of both Ukraine and Ukraine, and, it is necessary to mention it, for a serious, long-term historical perspective. Here we can not make a single mistake, a single improper wording; everything must be perfected," Putin stated.