Kiev must withdraw its troops from ethnic-Russian breakaway territories who voted to join Russia, and pledge not to join NATO..-
from thefreeonline on 14 Jun, 2024 by HomeRussia (banned in EU) –NEW- The Free is now on Telegram: https://t.me/thefreeonline
Ukraine must remove its troops from Russia’s new regions before any meaningful peace talks can begin, President Vladimir Putin has said.
Moscow rejects Kiev’s claims of sovereignty over five formerly Ukrainian regions, four of which have joined Russia amid the ongoing hostilities. People in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions voted for the transition in late 2022, though hostilities continue in all of them.
Ukrainian troops must be removed from these territories, Putin said on Friday at a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior Russian diplomats.
“I stress: the entire territory of those regions as defined by their administrative borders at the time they joined Ukraine [in August 1991],” Putin stated.
“Our side will order a ceasefire and start negotiations the minute Kiev declares that it is prepared to take this decision and starts actual withdrawal of troops from those regions, and also formally informs us that it no longer plans to join NATO,” the Russian leader pledged.
Putin outlined the conditions after condemning Kiev’s Western backers for allegedly preventing it from holding peace talks with Moscow while accusing Russia of rejecting negotiations.
READ MORE: Putin addresses top Foreign Ministry officials: As it happened(banned in EU)
“We are counting on Kiev to take such a decision on withdrawal, neutral status, and dialogue with Russia, on which the future existence of Ukraine depends, independently based on the current realities and guided by the true interests of the Ukrainian people and not at Western orders,” Putin stated.
At this point, Moscow will not accept a frozen conflict, which would allow the US and its allies to rearm and rebuild the Ukrainian military, Putin claimed. The full resolution of the issue will involve Kiev recognizing the four new regions as well as Crimea as part of Russia, he insisted.
READ MORE: Russian troops never intended to capture Kiev – Putin(banned in EU)
“In the future, all those basic principled positions have to be enshrined in fundamental international agreements. Naturally, that includes the lifting of all Western sanctions against Russia,” Putin stated.
Accepting these terms will allow everyone involved to turn the page and gradually rebuild damaged relations, the president said. Eventually, a pan-European security system that works for all nations on the continent could be created, Putin added, noting that Moscow has sought this outcome for years.
PUTIN LISTS RUSSIA’S CONDITIONS FOR PEACE TALKS WITH UKRAINE…OR IT IS AN INCINERATED EUROPE.. President says as soon as Ukraine withdraws its troops from Russian-claimed regions, declares neutral status, Moscow will halt all combat operation.. – Elena Teslova |14.06.2024l–
The Russian president’s keynote remarks came ahead of a Swiss-hosted summit supposedly meant to further peace in Ukraine. Kiev has insisted that Moscow could not be invited to the event because it would try to “hijack” it by promoting alternatives to the “peace formula” pushed by the Ukrainian government.
Putin claimed that the event was meant to distract public opinion from the “true roots” of the conflict, and that Vladimir Zelensky has usurped power in Ukraine after his presidential term expired last month. Nothing but demagoguery and accusations against Russia can come out of the Swiss gathering, he predicted.
Ukraine peace terms, Europe’s biggest threat, Zelensky’s fate: Putin outlines Moscow’s foreign policy goals
The Russian president has urged Kiev to accept his new offer and engage in dialogue to ensure its “future existence”
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Russia. © Sputnik / Valeriy Sharifulin
Moscow’s conditions for resolving the Ukraine conflict will require Kiev to recognize that its former regions are now under Russian sovereignty, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
He warned that the current offer is the best Kiev is going to get, as Russia will not allow hostilities to be frozen while the West rearms Ukrainian forces.
Putin outlined Russia’s key policy goals during a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior officials. The following is a recap of the keynote speech.
READ MORE: NATO tells Ukraine it must defeat Russia to join(banned in EU)
Missed chance for a just world
The world missed an opportunity to create a better, more just and secure international order in the 1990s, and the US and its allies are to blame, as they refused to respect the interests of other nations, Putin said.
“They decided that they ‘won’ the Cold War and they alone could determine how the world should move on. The practical expression of this attitude was the project for the unrestricted expansion of NATO,” according to the Russian president.
NATO diplomacy victimizes nations
The approach of the US-led military bloc to resolving conflicts has proven to be a disaster, Putin argued. NATO’s brand of diplomacy boils down to “accusing the party they dislike of all sins and crushing it.”
That was done to Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and others, causing much human suffering and destruction, he added.
READ MORE: Biggest danger to EU is the US – Putin(banned in EU)
US is a threat to Europe
Contrary to claims by Western politicians, Russia is not the main threat to European nations, Putin insisted. They are harmed because they depend on the US in virtually all areas.
“Ruling European politicians and EU bureaucrats seem to be more afraid of displeasing Washington than of losing the trust of their own citizens,” according to the Russian president. Unlike European leaders of the past, they are mere “extras”.
The ideology that the US tries to impose on the world to save its “imperial status” is leading to a dead end, Putin warned. This “aggressive messianism based on belief in exceptionalism” keeps international relations from becoming more stable.
West undermines market principles
US hegemony erodes the values that Washington claims to defend, including free competition and the global market economy, according to Putin.
READ MORE: Do the new US sanctions mark Russia’s final divorce from the dollar?(banned in EU)
“As it fails to compete even under the rules it wrote to benefit itself, Washington resorts to trade restrictions and protectionism,” he stated. “They apply pressure not only on opponents, but also on allies. Just look how they are draining European economies that are on the brink of a recession.”
The US is seeking to confiscate immobilized Russian sovereign assets, but “theft is theft despite all the chicanery,” he added, as any nation can be targeted next.
Kiev was the aggressor
The West caused the Ukraine conflict, Putin stressed. A large portion of Ukraine’s population was pro-Russian, and no amount of propaganda could break that bond. So Western meddlers opted for violence, when they funded and masterminded the 2014 armed coup in Kiev.
The government that emerged and nationalist forces “unleashed terror” on dissenting Ukrainians in the east, instead of allowing them to peacefully break away, although they had the right to seek self-determination under international law.
“Russia did not start this war. The Kiev regime did,” the president insisted.
READ MORE: Zelensky responds to Putin’s peace offer(banned in EU)
West pushed Kiev into war
Since 2014, Moscow has encouraged reconciliation in Ukraine, even as Kiev and its backers stonewalled the efforts, Putin said. When people in Donbass declared independence, Kiev sent in troops.
As Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine to support the Donbas in February 2022, Moscow sought a negotiated peace, he continued. When Russian troops were close to Kiev, there was no intention to besiege the city, only to pressure the Ukrainian government to compromise.
However, Kiev opted for war, apparently on Western orders, delivered personally by then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to Putin.
A ploy to replace Zelensky
Vladimir Zelensky is an illegitimate leader of Ukraine and a criminal under the country’s own laws, since his presidential term expired last month, Putin said. Russia suspects that the West is behind Zelensky’s decision not to hold a presidential election or transfer power, as stipulated by the constitution of Ukraine.
“The true masters of Ukraine – the globalist elites across the ocean – are trying to pin on the current executive branch the burden of unpopular decisions,” he said, referring to policies that Kiev will need to pursue to keep fighting Russia. “Later they will replace them with new people, equally dependent on the West, but with an untarnished reputation.”
READ MORE: China explains snub of Zelensky ‘peace summit’(banned in EU)
Swiss summit is demagoguery
Putin lashed out at the so-called “peace summit” scheduled to take place in Switzerland this weekend. He dismissed it as a Western trick to create the illusion of a global anti-Russian coalition, distract attention from the roots of the conflict, and boost Zelensky’s claim to legitimacy.
“It will all boil down to general demagogic discussions and a new round of accusations against Russia,” the president predicted. The conference excludes Russia, so it cannot produce a solution to the crisis.
No going back to Istanbul deal
The situation has changed since Russia and Ukraine negotiated a potential truce in Istanbul in March 2022. Now Moscow insists that Kiev recognize its sovereignty over former Ukrainian regions, in which people voted in referendums to join Russia, Putin said.
Moscow is willing to reach a ceasefire and start peace talks when Ukraine begins the withdrawal of its troops from those territories, and declares that it no longer intends to become a member of NATO, Putin stressed, insisting that “the future existence of Ukraine depends” on engaging in dialogue with Russia.
If this latest proposal is rejected, the situation will only worsen for Kiev, he warned. Moscow wants the entire problem to be untangled and will not accept a frozen conflict, which would allow the West to rearm Ukraine.
Ultimately, Russia wants a pan-European security architecture, in which the safety of all nations including Ukraine is safeguarded, the president added. Such a system will require the removal of any foreign military presence from the country, he concluded.
14 Jun, 2024 16:10
Zelensky responds to Putin’s peace offer
The Ukrainian leader has rejected Russia’s terms for ending the conflict
FILE PHOTO: Vladimir Zelensky. © Kristy Sparow / Getty Images
The terms Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined for ending the conflict are an “ultimatum” to Ukraine and as such unacceptable, Vladimir Zelensky has said.
Speaking at a meeting with senior Russian Foreign Ministry officials on Friday, Putin said that Kiev would have to cede all the territory of four regions that chose to join Russia and guarantee it would never join NATO before peace talks could begin.
“What can I say? These messages are ultimatum messages, they are nothing different than other ultimatums that he has made before,” Zelensky told the TV network Sky TG24 while attending the G7 meeting in the south of Italy.
“He wants us to give up part of our occupied territories, but he also wants the unoccupied ones. He talks about regions of our country, and he won’t stop,” Zelensky claimed.
Zelensky’s characterization of Putin’s offer as an ultimatum was dismissed as “a wrong understanding, definitely,” according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday.
Read more Putin names conditions for Ukraine peace talks(banned in EU)
“This is a comprehensive, very deep and constructive proposal,” Putin’s press secretary told Izvestia. If the terms seem harsher than those Moscow proposed in the spring of 2022, he explained, that’s because “a different situation has arisen,” with four regions choosing to become part of Russia.
Residents of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics voted overwhelmingly in September 2022 to leave Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Kiev and its Western backers have denounced the vote as “rigged” and a “sham,” just as they refused to recognize Crimea’s return in 2014.
Peskov reminded Izvestia that Ukraine received very generous peace terms in March 2022, but rejected them “on orders from the British.” Ukrainian media and officials have confirmed that Boris Johnson, UK prime minister at the time, told them they should not accept any deal with Russia.
Announcing the military operation against the government in Kiev, in February 2022, Putin said that Moscow intended to achieve the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine and secure guarantees that Kiev would never join NATO or any other anti-Russian military bloc.
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