Dressed head to toe in army fatigues, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday received the news he had been awaiting for more than a year: Russia had taken over the easternUkrainian city of Pokrovsk.
It doesn't matter that Kyiv disputed the claim, saying on Tuesday that fighting was still going on inside the city and that Moscow's "bravura statements" about the capture of Pokrovsk "do not match the reality."
The point of the highly choreographed meeting between Putin and his top military brass was to show the world that Russia is winning in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Putin was informed of the victory during a visit to a "command post" on Sunday, although both were only publicized late on Monday, on the eve of the Russian leader's meeting with key aides to US President Donald Trump.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, accompanied by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, met Putin on Tuesday – the latest instalment of a diplomatic whirlwind by the US aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
The five hours of talksfailed to yield a breakthrough, according to the Russian foreign policy adviser and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov, who said the talks were "very useful, constructive, and highly substantive" but a "compromise option was not found."
This came as no surprise to Kremlin watchers. Putin has indicated ahead of the time that he has no interest in finding compromise,reiteratinghis maximalist demands that Ukraine limits the size of its army, gives up some of its territory, and is banned from joining NATO.
The proposal Witkoff presented to Putin has not been made public, but Ukraine has made it clear it cannot accept any peace plan that would encroach on its sovereignty along the lines of Moscow's demands.
The power of theatrics
Putin's visit to the military post on Sunday, just before his meeting with the Americans, was clearly designed to portray Putin as a strong war-time leader who has the upper hand in Ukraine.
Unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who travels to the frontlines to meet soldiers on fairly regular basis, the Russian leader tends to keep his distance from the war.
His interactions with the military are rare but carefully timed – such as when he traveled to Kursk in March, just days before one of his previous meetings with Witkoff in Moscow.
Speaking to his top generals on Sunday, Putin praised them for "liberating" Pokrovsk, which he called by its Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmiisk, which translates as "Red Army City."
Kremlin made a point of the Pokrovsk developments on Monday, publishing a video showing Russian soldiers unfurling a Russian flag in Pokrovsk's city center – even though that particular area has been under Moscow's control for some time.
The strategic value of Pokrovsk, which served as a Ukrainian supply hub earlier in the war, has been greatly diminished during the many months of heavy fighting. But its seizure would nevertheless represent the biggest win for Moscow since 2023.
Ukrainian troops on the ground in Pokrovsk told CNN that the situation was extremely difficult.
One Ukrainian commander with a unit fighting in the city said that Russian troops had "nowhere near complete control" of Pokrovsk and that his unit was still holding onto their positions inside the city. However, another soldier said that it was "mostly true" that Russia was in control.
CNN cannot publish the soldiers' name due to security restrictions.
This declarations around Pokrovsk echoed the bold statements Russia made about "piercing" the Ukrainian frontline back in August, just days before the meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska.
Speaking at the command post on Sunday, Putin stressed that the Russian military was "advancing at a pace that guarantees the completion of all our objectives".
He doubled down on the claim he made last week, when he threatened Kyiv that if it doesn't agree to give up some of its territories, including the rest of the Donetsk region, willingly in the negotiations, Russia will take them by force.
Adding to that narrative, Putin told his commanders on Sunday that they need to ensure their troops have "everything they need" for winter operations.
George Barros, who leads the Russia and Geospatial Intelligence teams at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, said the messaging by Putin is aimed at Ukraine's western allies as much as it is at Ukraine.
"If he can successfully convince the world that Russia's battlefield victory is inevitable, then that leads to the question (among Kyiv's allies) 'Why are we supporting Ukraine? Let's just negotiate now,'" Barros told CNN last month.
But while Russia is inching forward along the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, its overall victory is not at all certain, Barros said. The latest ISW assessment of the Russian forces' rate of advance indicates that a Russian military victory in Ukraine is "not inevitable" and that a quick Russian military takeover of the rest of the Donetsk region – which Putin has been threatening – is unlikely.
So even though Putin and his military commanders continue to tout Russian advances and peddle the narrative of their inevitable victory, the easiest way for Russia to get what it wants is either by coercing Ukraine into taking a bad deal, or by convincing Kyiv's allies to ease out their support.
The US would be key for either of the two options.
CNN's Billy Stockwell, Darya Tarasova, Kostya Gak, Svitlana Vlasova and Victoria Butenko contributed reporting.
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Dressed head to toe in army fatigues, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday received the news he had been awaiting for more than a yea...
