Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Friday that Moscow would only ceasefire and start peace talks if Ukraine gave up four of its territories and abandoned its NATO membership bid.
Speaking on the eve of a major peace summit in Switzerland, orchestrated by Ukraine and its allies, Putin was outlining his conditions for halting the full-scale military offensive that he initiated in February 2022.
In a televised address to Russian diplomats in Moscow, Putin outlined, “Ukrainian troops must be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions”.
Russia claimed to have annexed the four regions in 2022, despite the fact that none of them were fully under its control.
“As soon as Kyiv says it is ready to do this and begins really withdrawing troops and officially renounces plans to join NATO, we will immediately, literally that very minute, ceasefire and begin talks”, Putin continued.
The Russian leader stated that he does not rule out maintaining Ukrainian sovereignty over the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on the condition that Russia has a strong land link with Crimea.
However, Putin and other top Russian officials have often justified their offensive by claiming that they are protecting ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in the east of Ukraine from a neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.
Ukraine and the West have dismissed those allegations as baseless, portraying Russia’s military actions as naked imperial-style aggression.
Russia unlawfully annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, sparking international outrage and armed war between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces in the country’s east.
Ukraine has stated that it will only accept peace if Russia completely withdraws from its internationally recognized territory, including Crimea.
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