In July 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin published a lengthy essay titled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians," arguing that Russians and Ukrainians constitute one unified people who were unjustly separated by external forces. Putin questioned Ukraine's right to territories gained after the 1922 Treaty on the Formation of the USSR, suggesting these should be subject to discussion and negotiation since the treaty's foundation had been annulled. This included Crimea, Southern Ukraine, parts of former Polish territory, and regions taken from Romania.

By June 2024, Putin's territorial demands had crystallized into concrete peace conditions. On June 14, he demanded Ukraine withdraw from the entire territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts within their administrative borders, despite Russia not fully controlling these regions. He also insisted on Ukraine's demilitarization, neutral status, and abandonment of NATO aspirations.

Meanwhile, former president Dmitry Medvedev articulated even more extreme positions. In March 2024, Medvedev published a "Russian Peace Formula" requiring Ukraine's complete and unconditional surrender, payment of compensations to Russia, and adoption of an act reunifying all former Ukrainian territories with the Russian Federation. He presented maps showing Russia controlling Ukraine's entire Black Sea coast to the Romanian and Moldovan borders, plus eastern territories including Chernihiv and Kharkiv oblasts.

In July 2024, Medvedev declared that even if Ukraine accepted Putin's conditions, this would not end Russia's military operation, stating Russia would eventually return all remaining Ukrainian lands to Russian control. These escalating demands—from Putin's 2021 historical claims through 2024's explicit territorial ultimatums—revealed Moscow's fundamental objective: not negotiated settlement but Ukraine's effective dissolution as an independent state.