Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a visit to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research June 13, 2024 in Dubna, Russia.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday laid out the requirements Moscow must meet to begin peace talks with Ukraine, more than two years after the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of the neighboring country.
According to a Google-translated Telegram update from Russian state news channel Tass, the conditions include the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, which Russia illegally annexed a few months after hostilities began, in September 2022.
The Kremlin’s terms are unlikely to be received favorably in Kiev, which has repeatedly said it will not hand over any territory to Russia.
At a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Putin said that as long as Ukraine begins a “real withdrawal of troops from these regions” and also officially announces the abandonment of NATO accession plans – on our part immediately “In the same minute the order will be given to fire to stop and start negotiations,” says the Google-translated comments from Tass.
He said Moscow was determined to ensure the “unhindered and safe withdrawal” of Ukrainian forces if Kiev agreed to such a concession.
If the peace proposal is rejected, Moscow will make other demands in the future, Putin added.
Putin’s comments are in stark contrast to his Ukrainian counterpart’s peace plan. Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point proposal, presented in November 2022, calls for restoring the country’s “territorial integrity” in accordance with the UN Charter. He has also insisted that Ukraine retake the Crimean peninsula in February 2014, which Russia illegally annexed before the current war.
CNBC has reached out to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for comment.
Previous peace attempts
Peace frameworks have so far been doomed to failure throughout the Ukraine conflict. A twelve-point plan that Russia’s ally Beijing published on the occasion of the first anniversary of the war also failed to gain momentum. Reuters reports that China is once again pushing forward its own alternative diplomatic plan.
Putin’s proposal on Friday threatens to steal the spotlight from upcoming negotiations in Switzerland, where at least 90 countries and organizations will meet for a Ukraine peace summit June 15-16 in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock.
Moscow in particular was not invited – and has indicated in the past that attempts by third parties to negotiate a solution to the conflict without Russia’s participation would be pointless. Previous summits have failed to bring about a diplomatic solution to the conflict or to curb hostilities on the battlefield.
This comes as Ukraine’s allies have increased their support both financially and militarily in recent weeks.
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On Thursday, Group of Seven leaders agreed in principle to give Kiev $50 billion in loans, backed by profits from some 300 billion euros ($322 billion) of assets frozen by the West Russian central bank are secured. European Council President Charles Michel stressed that “Russia must pay.”
NATO is scheduled to separately discuss continued support for Ukraine at its upcoming summit on July 9-11. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects member states to agree on a “long-term financial commitment to provide military support” to Kiev and a “leading role” for the military alliance in providing and coordinating security assistance in the war-torn country.
The US and Germany have already lifted some restrictions on arms sales to Ukraine and are now allowing their use against targets just across the border inside Russia, solely for the purpose of defending Kharkiv.
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2024-06-14 15:16:53
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