Putin has expressed a willingness to negotiate peace under the condition that Kyiv withdraws from the annexed regions and renounces its NATO aspirations. However, this proposal has been firmly rejected by Ukraine, the US, and NATO, who see it as an unacceptable demand that undermines Ukrainian sovereignty and security.
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Putin again condemned the peace conference on Ukraine scheduled to start tomorrow in Switzerland: “Another trick aimed at distracting everyone from the causes of the Ukrainian crisis,” intended to “once again give an appearance of legitimacy to the current Ukrainian authorities.” On the same day, he proposed a “real peace solution” for the “total cessation of the conflict” in Ukraine. This proposal has already been rejected by Kyiv, NATO, and the United States. “We are talking,” Putin said, “not about freezing the conflict but about its total cessation.” If the West and Ukraine refuse, Putin warned, they will bear the “responsibility for the continuation of bloodshed.” The conditions: “Russia is ready for a ceasefire and to start negotiations if Ukrainian troops completely withdraw from the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson and if Kyiv commits to not joining NATO.” Ukraine must have “a neutral, non-aligned status” and no nuclear weapons, along with “demilitarization and denazification.” Kyiv gave up nuclear weapons in 1994 with the Budapest Memorandum, with Russia, the US, and the UK guaranteeing its territorial integrity. “Naturally,” added Putin, “the rights, freedoms, and interests of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine must be fully guaranteed.” He emphasized that “these basic and fundamental provisions must be recorded in the form of fundamental international agreements” and that “naturally, this also implies the lifting of all Western sanctions against Russia.”
Putin claimed that in March 2022, at the start of the Russian military aggression, he told a “Western politician” he had “not ruled out maintaining Ukrainian sovereignty” over the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions (now partially occupied by Moscow’s troops), but “on the condition that Russia had a stable land corridor to Crimea.” Kyiv would have had to guarantee the so-called servitude, the legal right of Russia to access Crimea through the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Russia effectively annexed Crimea in 2014 with an invasion by armed men without insignia and a subsequent controversial referendum. Regarding the ongoing G7, Putin said the world is “unacceptably close to the point of no return” and risks a “tragedy” due to “the selfishness and arrogance of Western countries,” which talk about the need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia without considering that it “possesses one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world.” This was in response to the G7’s decision to finance aid to Kyiv with interest accrued on frozen Russian assets held in the US and EU, totaling about 280 billion. For Putin, the freezing of Russian capital in the West is “theft” that will not go unpunished, he promised, according to the Interfax agency.
“It’s the same thing Hitler did when he said ‘give me a part of Czechoslovakia and it ends here,’ you can’t trust him,” said Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to Skytg24 before flying to Switzerland for tomorrow’s peace conference. “No, these are lies, historical lies. Then there was Poland, then the occupation of all of Europe. That’s why we mustn’t trust these messages, because Putin follows the same path. Today he talks about four regions, before it was Crimea and Donbas.” “He doesn’t care about what happens to people; this is the new face of Nazism.” Before the Ukrainian president, his adviser Mikhaylo Podolyak had already spoken on X. “No real peace proposal and no desire to end the war. But there is a desire not to pay for this war and to continue it in new forms. It’s all a farce. So once again, free yourself from illusions and stop taking Russia’s ‘proposals’ seriously, which offend common sense,” he wrote. Point by point, Podolyak then reviewed the “proposal of the Russian Federation” as follows: “1) Give us your territories; 2) Renounce your sovereignty and subjectivity; 3) Remain without protection, no alliance memberships; 4) Remove (along with Western countries) all sanctions entirely and immediately so that we can fuel our militarized economy and make greater investments in information provocations worldwide. But most importantly, point 5) Urgently resolve the ‘non-failure of Russia’ at Ukraine’s expense.”
“Putin has illegally occupied sovereign Ukrainian territory and is in no position to dictate to Ukraine what it must do to bring peace,” said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the end of the NATO Defense Ministerial. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also spoke: “This is not a peace proposal but one of greater aggression and occupation, showing that Russia’s goal is to control Ukraine.” He added, “It is not up to Ukraine to withdraw forces from Ukrainian territory; it is up to Russia to withdraw its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory. This proposal actually means that Russia should have the right to occupy even more Ukrainian territory in all four provinces, which they consider non-Ukrainian.” At the end of the ministerial, which had suggested a $40 billion annual effort for Kyiv in recent days, Stoltenberg warned that “we do not yet have an agreement” on a “long-term financial commitment” for Ukraine. He announced that NATO would play a larger role in coordinating arms supplies to Ukraine. “Efforts that do not make NATO part of the conflict: NATO will oversee the training of Ukrainian armed forces at training facilities in allied countries.”
All this happens on the eve of the peace summit on Ukraine to be hosted by Switzerland. The presence of a hundred delegations and organizations is expected. Given the participation, “it is very regrettable that, for example, China, a country that claims to defend the UN Charter and international principles, has decided not to participate,” said European Commission spokesperson Peter Stano, adding that the EU had expected Beijing to “demonstrate its responsibility.” “Russia,” he added, “although invited, has clearly stated it is not interested in this summit,” implying “through actions ordered by Putin that it is interested in further escalation, targeting more and more civilian targets.” According to Putin, the summit demonstrates that “the West has not given up on the idea of forming some sort of anti-Russian international coalition and giving the impression of exerting pressure on Russia.”
These accusations were echoed by North Korea, which is preparing to receive Putin and condemns the summit as a “conspiracy gathering under the pretext of peace” to exclude Russia. “The idea of discussing the issue without including Russia, a key party in the conflict, is absurd.” Pyongyang criticized US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing them of using the summit to instigate further wars and clashes. “It is natural for the international community to condemn this conspiratorial meeting, which takes place under the pretext of peace but aims to promote conflicts and wars,” reported the Kona news agency, amid rumors of Putin’s imminent visit to the hermit state in the context of increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. Rumors circulating in Beijing indicated the visit, Putin’s first in 24 years, as possible over the weekend, coinciding with the peace conference in Switzerland.
Il Fatto Quotidiano, June 14, 2024
