Putin demands more Ukrainian land to end war; Kyiv rejects ‘ultimatum’
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Ukraine swiftly rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's demands as tantamount to surrender and dismissed them as “absurd”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said on June 14 that Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its Nato ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow, demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.
On the eve of a conference in Switzerland
The Russian leader restated his demand for Ukraine’s demilitarisation – unchanged from the day he sent in his troops on Feb 24, 2022 – and said an end to Western sanctions must also be part of a peace deal.
He also repeated his call for Ukraine’s “denazification”, based on what Kyiv calls an unfounded slur against its leadership.
Ukraine said the conditions were “absurd”.
“He is offering for Ukraine to admit defeat,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.
“He is offering for Ukraine to legally give up its territories to Russia. He is offering for Ukraine to sign away its geopolitical sovereignty,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Italy’s SkyTG24 news channel: “These are ultimatum messages that are no different from messages from the past.”
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at the Nato headquarters in Brussels: “He (Putin) is not in any position to dictate to Ukraine what it must do to bring about peace.”
The timing of Mr Putin’s speech was clearly intended to pre-empt the Swiss summit, billed as a “peace conference”
“The conditions are very simple,” Mr Putin said, listing them as the full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire territory of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Russia claimed the four regions, which its forces control only partially, as part of its own territory in 2022, an act rejected by most countries at the United Nations as illegal.
Moscow also seized and claimed to have annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.
“As soon as they declare in Kyiv that they are ready for such a decision and begin a real withdrawal of troops from these regions, and also officially announce the abandonment of their plans to join Nato – on our side, immediately, literally at the same minute, an order will follow to cease fire and begin negotiations,” Mr Putin said.
“I repeat, we will do this immediately. Naturally, we will simultaneously guarantee the unhindered and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian units and formations.”
Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the third year of the war. Ukraine says peace can be based only on the full withdrawal of Russian forces and the restoration of its territorial integrity.
The weekend summit in Switzerland, which will be attended by representatives of more than 90 nations and organisations, is expected to shy away from territorial issues and focus instead on matters such as food security and nuclear safety in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has said the gathering will prove “futile” without Russia being represented.
Existential question
Mr Putin’s conditions appeared to reflect his growing confidence in Moscow’s ability to impose its own terms as its forces have gradually advanced in recent months.
He said “the future existence of Ukraine” depended on it withdrawing its forces, on it adopting a neutral status and on beginning talks with Russia.
Mr Putin added that Kyiv’s military situation would worsen if it rejected the offer.
“Today, we are making another concrete and real peace proposal. If in Kyiv and in the Western capitals they refuse it as before, then, in the end, it is their business, their political and moral responsibility for the continuation of bloodshed,” Mr Putin said.
Ukraine and its Western allies describe the conflict as an imperial-style war of territorial conquest. Ukraine says any demand for its demilitarisation or future neutrality would expose it to further Russian attacks.
Mr Putin was speaking in the same week that the US hit Russia with more sanctions, announced a 10-year security pact with Ukraine – seen as a potential precursor to eventual Nato membership – and reached a deal with its Group of Seven allies to use interest on Russian assets frozen in the West to back a US$50 billion (S$67.7 billion) loan to Kyiv.
US President Joe Biden said on June 13 that the message to his Russian counterpart was that the West would stay the course.
“You cannot wait us out,” Mr Biden said.
“You cannot divide us.” REUTERS
