Russian military asks Kremlin to push back deadline for seizing Donbas, Ukraine says
Photo: Pavlo Palisa, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine (president.gov.ua)
The Russian military command is asking the Kremlin to extend the deadline regarding Donbas to spring 2027, as it considers it unrealistic to complete the mission by the end of the year, according to Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
The Donbas issue remains one of the key issues in political negotiations. The Russian political leadership has tasked the military with advancing to the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The Kremlin wants this task completed by December 31, 2026.
At the same time, the Russian military leadership assesses the task differently. According to the Office of the President representative, the military is convincing the Russian political leadership that the set deadline is unrealistic.
"The Russian political leadership has tasked the military leadership with resolving the Donbas issue, that is, advancing to the administrative borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, by December 31 of this year," Palisa says.
What deadline Russian military proposing
According to Palisa, the Russian military leadership is requesting that the deadline for completing the task be extended to March 31, 2027.
"Instead, the military leadership is convincing the political leadership that it is unrealistic to complete this task by the specified deadline. On the contrary, they are asking for an extension until March 31," he notes.
At the same time, the Office of the President of Ukraine does not consider even this revised deadline to be realistic.
"My personal opinion is that even by March 31, this scenario is unrealistic," Palisa states.
This is not the first time Russia has set a deadline for capturing the entire Donetsk region. According to the ISW, since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has already set deadlines for this task 15 times, but Russian troops have failed to meet any of them.
The latest deadline calls for the capture of the Donetsk region by December 31, 2026. Kostiantynivka, Sloviansk, and Kramatorsk remain among the Russian key targets.
