Shortly before the Swiss peace summit for Ukraine, Russian President Putin presented his conditions for negotiations. Kiev is to give up its NATO plans and four occupied regions. The demands are met with rejection there.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered a ceasefire in return for a Ukrainian withdrawal from the four territories annexed by Russia. “The course of the West and Kiev is to defeat us. But as you know, that has failed. Today we are putting forward another concrete, real peace proposal,” Putin said in a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Ukrainian troops must be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, Putin said, stressing that the regions at stake are “within their administrative borders”. As soon as Kyiv is ready to do this and also officially cancels its plans to join NATO, there will be a ceasefire and negotiations “immediately, literally at the same moment”. Other demands included a non-nuclear status for Ukraine, restrictions on its military power and the protection of the interests of the country’s Russian-speaking population.
Russia does not have full control of any of the four regions it illegally annexed in 2022. In Zaporizhia, Russia still does not control the administrative capital of the same name. In the neighboring Kherson region, Moscow withdrew from the capital of the same name in November 2022. This means that in addition to the Ukrainian territory already occupied by Russia, Putin wants additional land. Ukraine would have to give up about 20 percent of its own territory.
“Turn the tragic page of history”
All this should become part of fundamental international agreements, Putin said. All Western sanctions against Russia must be lifted. “We urge to turn this tragic page of history and gradually restore unity between Russia and Ukraine and Europe in general,” Putin said. If Kiev and the Western capitals reject his offer, they will be politically and morally responsible for the continuation of the bloodshed.
The Russian president said the peace proposal was about ending the conflict completely, but if Ukraine and the West reject the latest Russian proposal, the conditions for a new proposal would change and the situation on the battlefield would not be in Ukraine’s favor.
Ukraine rejects statements
Putin’s comments were met with immediate resistance from Ukraine and its allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed them as untrustworthy. The conditions were an ultimatum, he told the Italian news channel SkyTG24. Putin would not stop his military offensive even if his demands were met. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the comments “absurd”. Putin’s aim was to mislead the international community, he said.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said on Platform X that Putin had “no real peace proposals and no desire to end the fighting.” The proposal was “a complete deception.” There was no way to find a compromise between Putin’s statement and Ukraine’s position, Podoliak also told the Reuters news agency. Putin’s proposal amounts to Ukraine recognizing its defeat and giving up its sovereignty.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made similar comments. “This is not a proposal for peace,” he said. “This is a proposal for more aggression, more occupation.” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Putin was “in no position to dictate to Ukraine what it must do for peace.” Russia had occupied Ukrainian territory in violation of international law. “We do not want the leader of a country to wake up one day and decide to erase the borders of his neighbor and annex its territory. That is not the world we all want to live in.”
Peace summit in Switzerland without Russia
Ukraine is making the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from its internationally recognized territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, a condition for possible peace negotiations. A peace conference is due to begin in Switzerland this weekend, attended by Ukraine and numerous other states, but not by Russia, which was not invited. Switzerland hopes that Russia will also join the process one day. The Ukrainians are also considering this possibility.
The conference, which is based on elements of a peace plan presented by Zelensky in late 2022, is unlikely to produce any major results. It is seen as a largely symbolic attempt by Kyiv to mobilize the international community and demonstrate strength against its better-armed and numerically superior opponent.
Putin criticized the conference as another trick to divert international attention, reverse the cause and effect of the Ukraine crisis and steer the discussion in the wrong direction. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized, among other things, the location of the negotiations, saying that Switzerland was no longer a neutral country.
With information from Frank Aischmann, WDR
Frank Aischmann, ARD Moscow, tagesschau, 14.06.2024 17:44