Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday promised to “immediately” order a ceasefire in Ukraine and begin negotiations if Kiev withdraws its troops from four regions annexed by Moscow in 2022 and abandons plans to join NATO.
Such a deal would appear impossible for Kiev, which wants to join a military alliance and wants Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine altogether. Ukraine had no immediate comment on Putin’s proposal.
“We will do it immediately,” Putin said in a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
His statement was, G7 major developed countries The meeting took place in Italy, and Switzerland was preparing to host the event. Many world leaders This weekend, the United States and Ukraine will work together to take the first steps toward peace in Ukraine, not from Moscow, but from Russia. 10-Year Security Pact They hailed it as a milestone in relations between the two countries.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After Ukrainian forces thwarted a Russian advance on the capital, much of the fighting has been concentrated in the south and east, where Russia illegally annexed areas, none of which it fully controls.
Putin said his proposal aimed at a “final solution” to the Ukrainian conflict, not a “freeze,” and stressed that the Kremlin was “ready to start negotiations without delay.”
Putin’s broad demands for peace included denuclearizing Ukraine, limiting its military power and protecting the interests of Russian speakers in the country. All of this should be part of “fundamental international agreements,” he said, and all Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted.
“We call for turning the page on this tragic history and beginning the gradual restoration of the unity of Russia, Ukraine and Europe as a whole,” he said.
Putin’s comments were a rare clear indication of conditions for an end to the Ukraine war, but they included no new demands. The Kremlin has previously said Kiev should recognise its territorial gains and withdraw its NATO membership application.
Russia does not fully control any of the four regions it illegally annexed in 2022, but Putin insisted on Friday that Kiev should withdraw from them entirely and essentially cede them to Moscow within their administrative borders. In Zaporizhia in the southeast, Russia still does not control the administrative capital of the region, which had a pre-war population of about 700,000, and in the neighboring Kherson region, Moscow withdrew from its namesake city, which is Kherson’s largest city and capital, in November 2022.
Putin said that if “Kiev and Western capitals” rejected the proposal, “it is their problem, their political and moral responsibility to continue the bloodshed.”
