Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday outlined the conditions for Moscow to start peace talks with Ukraine, greater than two years after the Kremlin's large-scale invasion of the neighboring country.
According to a Google translation Telegram update According to Russian state news channel Tass, the terms include the entire withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions in September 2022, which Russia illegally annexed inside months of the beginning of hostilities.
The Kremlin's conditions are unlikely to satisfy with much approval in Kiev, because the country has repeatedly stated that it’s going to not cede any territory to Russia.
Putin said at a gathering with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry that if Ukraine begins a “real withdrawal of troops from these regions and also officially announces the abandonment of plans to join NATO, we will immediately, in the same minute, issue an order for a ceasefire and the start of negotiations,” in accordance with Google-translated Comments by Tass.
He said Moscow was determined to make sure an “unhindered and safe withdrawal” of Ukrainian forces if Kyiv agreed to such a concession.
If the peace proposal is rejected, Putin continued, Moscow's future demands could be different.
Putin's comments are in stark contrast to his Ukrainian counterpart's peace plan. Volodymyr Zelensky's ten-point proposal, presented in November 2022, calls for the restoration of the country's “territorial integrity” in accordance with the UN Charter. He also insists that Ukraine get back the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed before the present war in February 2014.
CNBC has asked the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for comment.
Previous peace efforts
The previous peace agreements within the Ukraine conflict were doomed to failure. A 12-point plan The statement issued by Russia's ally Beijing on the one-year anniversary of the war also failed to achieve momentum. China is again pushing its own alternative diplomatic plan, Reuters reports.
Putin's proposal on Friday threatens to steal the show from the upcoming talks in Switzerland, where at the least 90 countries and organizations are as a result of meet for a summit on peace in Ukraine within the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock on June 15 and 16.
Moscow was not invited – and has previously stressed the futility of third-party negotiations to resolve the conflict without Russian involvement. Previous summits have neither led to a diplomatic solution to the conflict nor reduced hostilities on the battlefield.
This move comes as Ukraine's allies have increased their financial and military support in recent weeks.
On Thursday, G7 leaders agreed in principle to grant Kiev $50 billion in loans, to be covered by profits from the roughly 300 billion euros ($322 billion) of Russian central bank assets frozen by the West. European Council President Charles Michel stressed that “Russia must pay for this.”
NATO may also discuss further support measures for Ukraine at its upcoming summit from July 9 to 11. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects member countries to agree on a “long-term financial commitment to military support” to Kyiv and that the military alliance will play a “leading role” in providing and coordinating security assistance within the war-torn country.
The US and Germany have already lifted some restrictions on their arms deliveries to Ukraine and now allow their use against targets just across the border in Russia, solely for the aim of defending Kharkiv.
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