Ammon News - Russia will take full control of Ukraine's Donbas region by force unless Ukrainian forces withdraw, President Vladimir Putin says, something Kyiv has flatly rejected.

Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops in the Donbas, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"Either we liberate these territories by force of arms, or Ukrainian troops leave these territories," Putin told India Today on Thursday before a visit to New Delhi, according to a clip shown on Russian state television.

AAP