On Tuesday, before his phone call with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin spoke at a closed session of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Congress, where he reportedly said he wouldn’t have launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine if the West had recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the autonomy of the Kremlin-backed separatist enclaves in Donetsk and Luhansk.
According to Kommersant special correspondent [Andrey Kolesnikov](https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/7586520), who spoke to multiple people who witnessed the president’s remarks, Putin’s negotiating strategy is now based on the idea that “what Russia has achieved cannot be taken away” and that Crimea and the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions must all be recognized as Russian territory.
In a more noteworthy comment, Putin reportedly told his audience that Russia would not “lay claim to Odesa or other territories currently belonging to Ukraine” if Kyiv and the West accept Russia’s expanded borders — but only if it happens “in the near future.”
Russia formally annexed Crimea on March 18, 2014, despite international condemnation and sanctions, two days after a disputed referendum.
On September 30, 2022, days after Russia held sham referendums in occupied areas, Vladimir Putin declared the annexation of Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions despite lacking full control over any of them.