Putin says: "All of Ukraine is our property" – he may now be planning to capture the city of Sumy.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia was not seeking Ukraine's capitulation, but wanted Kyiv to recognize the reality of the situation on the battlefield.

Putin, speaking at an international economic forum in St Petersburg, said: "We are not seeking Ukraine's capitulation. We are insisting on a recognition of the reality that has developed on the ground."

The Russian leader said that Russians and Ukrainians were one people, "and in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours." Putin said he did not rule out Russia taking control of the Ukrainian city of Sumy.

However, he said Russia had never doubted Ukraine's right to sovereignty, but noted that when Ukraine declared its independence in 1991 it was as a "neutral state."

Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea as illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.

Putin said Russian forces were carving out a buffer zone in Ukraine's Sumy region in order to protect Russian territory and said he did not rule out those same troops taking control of the regional capital of Sumy.