This was stated on Espreso TV by Bartosz Cichocki, Poland’s Ambassador to Ukraine in 2019–2023, in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi.“This is not a Russian-Ukrainian war. It is a Russian war against the system of international relations, against the international security order that was created after the end of the Cold War, not in Russia’s favor. Later, the European Union and NATO expanded, and Russia found itself on the periphery, where it does not want to be. It is now trying to return to the center of international relations through criminal aggression and full-scale war.We must make sure that the West understands: Russia cannot be stopped by concessions. If politicians succeed in pushing the idea that Ukraine does not matter, Poland does not matter, the Baltic states do not matter, and that we should make deals with Russia — then Russia will not stop,” Cichocki commented.In his view, Russia must be stopped by sanctions and “convinced” on the battlefield in eastern and southern Ukraine that it cannot achieve its aims militarily. He believes this moment is drawing closer: after its gains in 2022, Russia has seized only 1% of Ukraine’s territory while losing thousands of troops, and still does not control Pokrovsk or other key points in the east.“Russia cannot bear such a burden. It left Afghanistan after losing 20,000 troops. In Ukraine, it has already lost more than 200,000, not counting the wounded. No state can wage such a war indefinitely. In a few weeks or months, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine will have lasted as long as the Great Patriotic War of the 1940s. We must be patient and rethink certain things,” the diplomat noted.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said to the White House — including Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff — that he would “take” Donbas by the end of the year. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russian forces have occupied about 30% of Donetsk region.