Saldo called four regions of eastern Ukraine “absolute Russia”. Also, according to him, the Kirovograd, Sumy, Poltava, Chernihiv and Cherkassy regions are inextricably historically linked with Russia.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Tucker Carlson that the Black Sea region never had any historical connection with Ukraine. Former US military intelligence officer Scott Ritter said that Ukraine risks losing access to the Black sea.