The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. | Photograph credit score: AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised on June 14 to “instantly” order a ceasefire in Ukraine and start negotiations if kyiv started withdrawing troops from the 4 areas annexed by Moscow in 2022 and gave up its plans to affix NATO. .
Such an settlement appears not possible for kyiv, which needs to affix the army alliance and has demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from all its territory. There was no fast remark from Ukraine on Putin’s proposal.
“We’ll do it instantly,” Putin stated in a speech on the Russian Overseas Ministry in Moscow.
His feedback got here as leaders of the Group of Seven main industrialized international locations met in Italy and as Switzerland ready to host dozens of world leaders (however not from Moscow) this weekend to attempt to chart the primary steps towards peace in Ukraine. America and Ukraine additionally signed a 10-year safety settlement this week that they hailed as a milestone in relations.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After Ukrainian forces thwarted a Russian advance towards the capital, a lot of the preventing has centered on the south and east, with Russia illegally annexing areas within the east and south, though it doesn’t utterly management any of them.
Putin stated his proposal goals for a “last decision” to the battle in Ukraine reasonably than “freezing” it, and emphasised that the Kremlin is “prepared to start out negotiations at once.”
The broader peace calls for the Russian chief listed included Ukraine’s non-nuclear standing, restrictions on its army energy and safety of the pursuits of the Russian-speaking inhabitants within the nation. All of this needs to be a part of “basic worldwide agreements” and all Western sanctions towards Russia needs to be lifted, Putin stated.
“We urge you to show this tragic web page in historical past and start to revive, step-by-step, unity between Russia and Ukraine and in Europe usually,” he stated.
Putin’s feedback represented a uncommon event during which he clearly laid out his situations for ending the warfare in Ukraine, however didn’t embrace any new calls for. The Kremlin has stated earlier than that kyiv ought to acknowledge its territorial good points and abandon its bid to affix NATO.
Russia doesn’t totally management any of the 4 areas it illegally annexed in 2022, however Putin insisted on June 14 that kyiv ought to withdraw from them solely and basically cede them to Moscow inside its administrative borders. In Zaporizhzhia within the southeast, Russia nonetheless doesn’t management the area’s eponymous administrative capital, with a pre-war inhabitants of round 700,000, and within the neighboring Kherson area, Moscow withdrew from the biggest metropolis. capital of Kherson and capital of the identical identify in November 2022.
Putin stated that if “kyiv and Western capitals” reject his provide, “it’s their enterprise, political and ethical duty to proceed the bloodshed.”
