International Courant
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Friday to “instantly” implement a ceasefire in Ukraine and begin negotiations if Kiev withdraws troops from the 4 areas annexed by Moscow by 2022 and abandons plans to hitch the NATO. Ukraine responded by calling Putin’s proposal “manipulative” and “absurd.”
Putin’s feedback got here as Switzerland ready to host dozens of world leaders – however not from Moscow – this weekend to attempt to map out the primary steps in direction of peace in Ukraine.
In addition they coincided with a gathering of leaders of the Group of seven main industrialized international locations in Italy and after the US and Ukraine signed this week a ten-year safety settlement which Russian officers, together with Putin, labeled “insignificant.”
Putin labeled the convention in Switzerland as “simply one other trick to divert everybody’s consideration, reverse the trigger and impact of the Ukrainian disaster (and) put the dialogue on the improper observe.”
His calls for got here in a speech on the Russian Overseas Ministry and targeted on what he referred to as a “remaining answer” to the battle quite than “freezing it.” He burdened that the Kremlin “is able to begin negotiations directly.”
Broader calls for for peace that Putin listed included Ukraine recognizing Crimea as a part of Russia, sustaining the nation’s non-nuclear standing, limiting its army energy and defending the pursuits of Russian-speaking inhabitants. These should all be a part of “elementary worldwide agreements” and all Western sanctions on Russia have to be lifted, Putin mentioned.
“We urge you to show this tragic web page of historical past and begin, step-by-step, to revive unity between Russia and Ukraine and in Europe typically,” he mentioned.
Putin’s feedback, addressed to a bunch of somber Overseas Ministry officers and a few senior lawmakers, represented a uncommon event through which he clearly laid out his situations for ending the battle in Ukraine, however made no new calls for. The Kremlin has beforehand mentioned Kiev ought to acknowledge its territorial positive factors and abandon its bid to hitch NATO.
However Ukraine’s Overseas Ministry referred to as Putin’s plan “manipulative,” “absurd” and supposed to “mislead the worldwide group, undermine diplomatic efforts aimed toward reaching a simply peace and divide the unity of the world majority across the functions and rules of the UN Constitution. .”
Along with becoming a member of NATO, Ukraine additionally needs Russian troops to depart its territory, together with the Crimean Peninsula that was illegally annexed in 2014; the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine; and that Russia be held liable for battle crimes and that Moscow pay reparations to Kiev.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After Ukrainian forces thwarted a Russian assault on the capital, a lot of the combating was concentrated within the south and east – and Moscow illegally annexed areas within the east and south. though it would not management any of them fully.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, mentioned on social media that there was nothing new from Putinl and that the Russian chief was “simply expressing the ‘normal aggressor’s set’ that has been heard many instances.”
“That is nothing new, no actual peace proposals and no need to finish the battle. However there’s a need to not pay for this battle and to proceed it in new varieties. It is all an entire sham,” Podolyak wrote on X.
US Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin mentioned at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Putin “illegally occupied sovereign Ukrainian territory. He isn’t ready to dictate to Ukraine what to do to attain peace.”
Austin added that Putin “began this battle with none provocation. He might finish it as we speak if he chooses.”
NATO Secretary Basic Jens Stoltenberg added that “this isn’t a peace proposal. It is a proposal of extra aggression, extra occupation, and in a way it reveals that Russia’s aim is to regulate Ukraine.”
Putin insisted that Kiev fully withdraw from all 4 annexed areas, successfully ceding them to Moscow inside their administrative borders. In Zaporizhia within the southeast, Russia nonetheless doesn’t management the area’s administrative capital, with a pre-war inhabitants of round 700,000; within the neighboring Kherson area, Moscow withdrew from its largest metropolis and capital of the identical identify in November 2022.
Putin mentioned that if “Kiev and the Western capitals” reject his provide, “it’s their enterprise, their political and ethical accountability to proceed the bloodshed.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly signaled its willingness to carry peace talks with Kiev and has blamed the West for undermining its efforts to finish the battle.
Putin went additional on Friday, claiming that his forces by no means supposed to storm the Ukrainian capital Kiev at the same time as they approached the town.
“In essence it was nothing greater than an operation to power the Ukrainian regime into peace. The troops had been there to push the Ukrainian facet to barter, to attempt to discover a suitable answer,” he mentioned.
Moscow withdrew from Kiev in March 2022, describing it as a gesture of goodwill as peace talks between the 2 started, however the withdrawal befell amid fierce Ukrainian resistance that considerably slowed Russia’s advance on the battlefield.
Putin additionally claimed that he advised a overseas official that very same month that he didn’t rule out the withdrawal of troops from the Kherson and Zaporizhia areas and returned the occupied elements of them to Ukraine, so long as Kiev allowed Russia to have a “robust nation.” connection” with Crimea.
He mentioned the official deliberate to take that proposal to Kiev — which Moscow “welcomed” because it typically welcomed “efforts to discover a peaceable answer to the battle.” However the Kremlin subsequently annexed each areas, together with Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, citing the outcomes of mock referendums it organized there. Putin talked about this and mentioned: “The matter is closed eternally and is not up for dialogue.”
Throughout Friday’s combating, Russian defenses shot down 87 Ukrainian drones, the Protection Ministry in Moscow mentioned. Most of them had been launched in opposition to the Rostov area, dwelling to Russia’s southern army command, however no deaths or harm had been reported in one of many largest Ukrainian drone barrages. by the battle.
In Russia’s border area of Belgorod, a part of a residential constructing within the city of Shebekino collapsed after Ukrainian shelling, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov mentioned. Three individuals had been injured, he mentioned.
Ukraine’s army has fallen behind in latest months, with troops outnumbering these of the Kremlin and experiencing shortages of ammunition and weapons on account of delays in promised Western army help.
Russia has focused Ukraine with drones, particularly the ability grid. It fired 14 missiles and 17 Shahed drones in a single evening, the Ukrainian air power mentioned. Air protection methods downed all drones and 7 missiles, the report mentioned.
The assaults injured six individuals within the Donetsk area, the place residential buildings had been hit, officers mentioned.
A Russian drone hit a bus close to the village of Esman within the northern Sumy area, injuring three girls. Authorities mentioned there have been 20 passengers on the bus on the time.
Additionally Friday, Russia returned the our bodies of 254 troopers to Ukraine, Kiev mentioned. As soon as the our bodies are recognized, they are going to be returned to kinfolk, the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Remedy of Prisoners of Conflict mentioned. — Related Press writers Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Samya Kullab and Illia Novikov in Kiev, Ukraine, Lorne Prepare dinner in Brussels and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed. ___ Observe AP’s protection of the battle in Ukraine
