ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russians and Ukrainians were one people, "and in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours," and said he did not rule out Russia taking control of the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
But Putin, speaking at an international economic forum in St Petersburg, 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".
Putin, who says Russia is fighting in Ukraine to protect its own security, was answering a question about Russia's war aims.
"We have a saying, or a parable," Putin said.
"Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours."
Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea as illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy 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.
(Reporting by Volodya Soldatkin; Writing by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Andrew Osborn)
