President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia will end the war in Ukraine only if Kiev agrees to abandon its NATO ambitions and fully surrender four areas claimed by Moscow. Ukraine immediately rejected those demands as tantamount to surrender.
On the eve of the conference in Switzerland, to which Russia was not invited, Putin presented maximalist conditions completely opposite to those demanded by Ukraine, which, according to Reuters, is an obvious reflection of Moscow's belief that its forces have an advantage in the war.
He repeated the demand for the demilitarization of Ukraine, which has not changed since the day he sent in troops on February 24, 2022, and said the lifting of Western sanctions must also be part of the peace deal.
Putin also repeated his call for the "denazification" of Ukraine, based on what Kiev calls baseless slander against its leadership.
Ukraine described Putin's conditions as "absurd".
"He offers Ukraine to admit defeat. He offers Ukraine to legally give up its territories to Russia. He is offering Ukraine to give up its geopolitical sovereignty," Mihailo Podoljak, adviser to the Ukrainian president, told Reuters.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Italian channel SkyTG24: "These are ultimatums that do not differ from messages from the past."
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters at the NATO headquarters in Brussels: "He (Putin) is not in a position to dictate to Ukraine what it must do to achieve peace."
"The conditions are very simple," Putin said, and include the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire territory of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Russia declared the four areas, which its forces only partially control, as its territory in 2022, in an act rejected as illegal by most countries and the United Nations.
Moscow also annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
"As soon as they announce in Kiev that they are ready for such a decision and begin the real withdrawal of troops from these areas, and also officially announce the abandonment of their plans to join NATO - we will immediately, literally at the same moment, order a ceasefire and begin negotiations ", said Putin.
“I repeat, we will do it immediately. Of course, at the same time, we will guarantee the smooth and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian units and formations".
Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine's territory in the third year of the war. Ukraine says that peace can only be based on the complete withdrawal of Russian forces and the restoration of its territorial integrity.
Putin said that "the future existence of Ukraine" depends on the withdrawal of its forces, the adoption of neutral status and the start of negotiations with Russia, adding that Kiev's military situation will worsen if it rejects the offer
The weekend summit in Switzerland, billed as a "peace conference" even though Russia is excluded, will be attended by representatives of more than 90 countries and organizations. A discussion on territorial issues is not expected, but the focus will be on topics such as food security and nuclear security in Ukraine, writes Reuters.
The Kremlin said that the meeting would prove to be "in vain" without the representatives of Russia.
Reuters reports that Putin's demands show he is increasingly confident in Russia's ability to impose its own terms as its troops gradually advance in recent months.
Putin said that "the future existence of Ukraine" depends on the withdrawal of its forces, the adoption of neutral status and the start of negotiations with Russia, adding that Kiev's military situation will worsen if it rejects the offer.
"Today we are making another concrete, real peace proposal. If they reject it in Kiev and in the Western capitals as before, then it is, after all, their business, their political and moral responsibility for the continuation of the bloodshed," Putin said.
Ukraine believes that any demand for demilitarization or future neutrality would expose it to further Russian attacks.
Putin delivered the speech in the same week that the US imposed new additional sanctions on Russia, announced a 10-year security pact with Ukraine, interpreted as a potential prelude to eventual NATO membership, and reached an agreement with the Group of Seven allies to use interest in frozen Russia assets in the West to support a 50 billion euro loan to Kiev.
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