Vladimir Putin issues fresh demands to Ukraine to end war

 

Vladimir Putin issues fresh demands to Ukraine to end war

Before a ceasefire could start, Vladimir Putin stated that Ukraine would need to remove its forces from areas it believes it has annexed; the president of Ukraine referred to this as a "ultimatum" reminiscent of Adolf Hitler.

 

Volodymyr Zelensky has stated for a long time that until Russian military withdraw from all of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea, negotiations would not take place.

Additionally, the Russian president stated that before peace negotiations could begin, Ukraine would have to give up on joining NATO.

Mr. Putin's declaration outlining his demands for a ceasefire was made just before leaders from ninety nations are gearing up to convene in Switzerland on Saturday to talk about ways to bring about peace in Ukraine; Russia has not been invited to this meeting.

 

Speaking to a meeting of Russian ambassadors in Moscow on Friday, Mr Putin called on the Ukrainian government to withdraw from four regions partially occupied by Russia - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

He also said Ukraine would need to officially give up in its efforts to join the Nato military alliance for the Russian advance to be halted.

Mr Putin said: "As soon as Kyiv declares that it is ready for such a decision... an order to cease fire and begin negotiations will immediately follow from our side, literally at the same minute."

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called the proposal a "complete sham" and "offensive to common sense".

"These are ultimatum messages," President Zelensky stated on Italy's Sky TG24 television later on Friday. Hitler declared, "Give me a piece of Czechoslovakia, and it will end here." This is exactly what he did.

Additionally rejecting the Russian requests, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declared, "Putin has illegally occupied sovereign Ukrainian territory."He has no right to tell Ukraine what has to be done in order to achieve peace."

"Not made in good faith" was how NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg described Mr. Putin's proposition.

 

Russia analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said Mr Putin's plan is a set of "maximalist" demands that offer no concessions, timed to devalue the peace conference ahead of it beginning.

Mr Zelensky will be attending Saturday's summit near Lake Lucerne, where he will hope to show he still enjoys wide international support.

The Swiss government has said the aim of the summit is "to provide a forum where world leaders discuss paths towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, based on international law and the UN Charter".

 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US Vice-President Kamala Harris, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen are among the other guests.

China has stated that it will go even if Russia is not present, despite Russia not being invited.

Following their agreement to use interest on frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine in fending off Russian invasion forces, the G7 leaders convened a peace summit.

The G7 and the EU placed asset freezes totaling about $325 billion (£256 billion) in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The interest generated by the assets is roughly $3 billion annually.

 

According to the G7 proposal, the $3 billion will be utilized to settle the yearly interest on a $50 billion loan that the Ukrainians obtained from foreign markets.

Although the funds are not anticipated to come until the end of the year, they are thought to be a longer-term solution to help Ukraine's economy and war effort.

A 10-year bilateral security agreement between the US and Ukraine was also inked on the fringes of the G7 conference; Kyiv praised the agreement as "historic".