"Russians and Ukrainians are one people, in this sense all of Ukraine is ours," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, answering the question of how far Moscow's troops would push.

The tsar does not rule out the possibility that Russian forces will capture the city of Sumy in their advance to create a security zone to prevent Ukrainian shelling of Russian territory, adding that Moscow "is not seeking Ukraine's capitulation but only recognition of the realities that have emerged on the ground."

Putin then assured that he will not allow the risks of recession or stagnation in the Russian economy to materialize , after yesterday the Minister of Economic Development Reshetnikov declared that Russia is "on the verge of a transition to recession" and that "everything depends on the decisions" of economic policy that will be taken.

(Online Union)