Sun May 18 15:00:00 UTC 2025: **Headline: Gates: Putin Unlikely to Accept Peace Without Rebuilding Russian Empire**
**Washington, D.C.** – Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to accept any peace deal in Ukraine without achieving his long-held ambition of rebuilding the Russian empire. In a recent interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Gates asserted that Putin views Ukraine as integral to this goal, echoing sentiments previously expressed by Zbigniew Brzezinski.
“Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire,” Gates said. “And as my old mentor, Zbigniew Brzezinski once said, without Ukraine, there can be no Russian Empire.”
Gates outlined Putin’s likely demands for any settlement, including the complete occupation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, permanent recognition of Russian control over Crimea, a pro-Russian government in Kyiv, and a heavily demilitarized Ukrainian army limited to policing functions. He also anticipates demands that Ukraine be barred from joining NATO or the European Union.
Despite significant Russian losses in the war, including approximately 900,000 troops killed or wounded and substantial economic damage, Gates stated that Putin remains undeterred. He also noted that even former President Trump seems to recognize Putin’s reluctance to genuinely negotiate. “I think the president is — based on what I read — is getting the sense that, as he put it, that Putin is ‘tapping’ him along and … Putin hasn’t given up on any of his original goals in Ukraine,” Gates said.
The ongoing conflict, which began with Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, reflects Putin’s desire to reverse the outcome of the Euromaidan revolution and return Ukraine to Moscow’s sphere of influence.
“He wants Ukraine, basically, to be a client state of Russia,” Gates stated, expressing pessimism about the prospects for a negotiated resolution in the foreseeable future.
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