The president of Russia, Vladimir Putinlisted this Friday his conditions for ending the war in Ukraine. Under these, the Kyiv government would have to completely withdraw its troops from the Ukrainian territories that Russia annexed since launching its invasion in 2022.
The proposal was immediately described by Kyiv as an “offense to common sense.” The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskymaintains that Ukraine will not negotiate with Moscow until Russian forces abandon all of its country’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014.
Putin also stated that Ukraine would have to give up its intention to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) before peace talks could begin.
Putin’s statement laying out his conditions for the ceasefire came as leaders of 90 countries prepare to meet in Switzerland this Saturday to discuss paths to peace in Ukraine, at a summit that Russia has not attended. been invited.
What else did Putin say?
At a meeting of Russian ambassadors in Moscow on Friday, Putin said his conditions are “very simple.”” and which assume that the Ukrainian army withdraws from four regions partially occupied by its troops: Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
He also noted that Ukraine would have to cease its efforts to join the military alliance of the NATO to stop the Russian advance.
“As soon as Kyiv declares that it is ready for such a decision… an order for a ceasefire and start of negotiations will immediately follow from our side, literally in the same minute,” he said. Putin.
Furthermore, he stated that it is essential that the economic sanctions that the West has imposed on Cuba be canceled. Russia since the war began in February 2022.
In his speech, he also insisted that Ukraine must go through a process of “demilitarization” and acquire a “neutral” status between the West and Russia. And repeating his justification for invading Ukrainepointed out that the neighboring country must “denazify itself.”
After more than two years, Russia controls almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Kyiv and NATO’s responses
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Putin’s proposal is equivalent to Ukraine admit defeat and renounce its sovereignty, which is why he considered it a “complete farce” and that it is “offensive to common sense.”
“It is absurd that Putinwho planned, prepared and carried out, together with his accomplices, the largest armed aggression in Europe since the Second World War, presents himself as a peacemaker,” said the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
Kyiv has said peace can only be based on the full withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine and the restoration of its territorial integrity.
In rejecting Putin’s offer, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said such a proposal “was not made in good faith.”
“This is a proposal that actually means that Russia must achieve its war objectives, hoping that the Ukrainians will give up much more territory than Russia has been able to occupy until now,” he stated.
The meeting in Switzerland
The president is expected to Zelensky attend the summit with 90 countries this Saturday near Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, where it hopes to demonstrate that it continues to enjoy international support.
The Swiss government has stated that the aim of the summit is “to provide a forum in which world leaders discuss the paths towards a just and lasting peace in Ukrainebased on international law and the Charter of the United Nations”.
The Kremlin noted that such a meeting will be “useless” if Russia does not participate. China declined its participation due to the absence of Russian representation.
Among the confirmed attendees is the US Vice President, Kamala Harris; the French president, Emmanuel Macron; the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz; the italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The peace summit comes after G7 leaders agreed on an aid scheme for Ukraine financed by frozen Russian assets.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, G7 countries and the EU froze Russian assets worth $325 billion. The asset fund generates about $3 billion a year in interest.
Under the G7 plan, those returns will be used to pay annual interest on a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, contracted on international markets.
The money is not expected to arrive until the end of the year, but is seen as a long-term solution to support the war effort and Ukraine’s economy.
On the sidelines of the G7 summit, the United States and Ukraine also signed a ten-year bilateral security agreement, described as “historic” by Kyiv and which paves a path to entry into NATO.
This article was written and edited by our journalists with the help of an artificial intelligence translation tool, as part of a pilot program.
