Putin demands more Ukrainian land to end war; Kyiv rejects 'ultimatum'
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1 of 2 Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the
leadership of the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, Russia June 14,
2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
[1/2]Russia's
President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the leadership of the
Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim
Shemetov Purchase Licensing Rights - Putin sets out most detailed conditions so far to end war
- Offer comes on eve of Swiss peace summit
- Ukraine rejects Putin's terms as ultimatum
MOSCOW,
June 14 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday 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 to which Russia has not been invited, Putin set out
maximalist conditions wholly at odds with the terms demanded by Ukraine,
apparently reflecting Moscow's growing confidence that its forces have
the upper hand in the war.
He
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. He is offering for Ukraine to
legally give up its territories to Russia. He is offering for Ukraine to
sign away its geopolitical sovereignty," Ukrainian presidential adviser
Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.
President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Italy's SkyTG24 news channel: "These are
ultimatum messages that are no different from messages from the past."
U.S.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at NATO headquarters in
Brussels: "He (Putin) is not in any position to dictate to Ukraine what
they must do to bring about peace."
The
timing of Putin's speech was clearly intended to preempt the Swiss
summit, billed as a "peace conference" despite Russia's exclusion, where
Zelenskiy seeks a show of international support for Kyiv's terms to end
the war.
"The
conditions are very simple," 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 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," 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 only be based 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
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.
Putin
said "the future existence of Ukraine" depended on it withdrawing its
forces, on it adopting a neutral status, and on beginning talks with
Russia, and said Kyiv's military situation would worsen if it rejected
the offer.
"Today
we are making another concrete, 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," 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.
Putin
was speaking in the same week that the United States 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 $50 billion loan to Kyiv.
U.S.
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that the message to Putin was that
the West would stay the course: "You cannot wait us out. You cannot
divide us," said Biden.
Additional reporting by Max Hunder in Kyiv; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Peter Graff and Angus MacSwan