Ukrainian
service members of the 110th Colonel-General Marko Bezruchko Separate
Mechanized Brigade prepare to fire an RM-70 Vampire multiple launch
rocket system towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine,
at a position near a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 30,
2024. REUTERS/Alina Smutko/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Russia warns Ukraine: peace terms will only get worse
MOSCOW,
Aug 6 (Reuters) - A top Russian official told Ukraine on Tuesday that
the longer it waited to enter peace talks, the tougher the terms would
be for its people.
Moscow has said talks must be based on Ukraine ceding land
amounting to a fifth of its territory - much of it seized by Russian
forces - and renouncing any prospect of joining the Western-led NATO
alliance, terms that Ukraine has dismissed out of hand.
Sergei
Shoigu, secretary of Russia's Security Council and until recently
President Vladimir Putin's defence minister, said that since Putin had proposed peace terms
"The
window of opportunity for Ukraine is narrowing," he was shown saying by
state television, adding that Ukraine had not responded and would lose
more territory the longer it delayed.
"The
Kyiv regime's illusions that the Europeans will arrange another
beautiful peace summit, ... at which all their internal problems will be
resolved by themselves, are costing the people of Ukraine dearly,"
Shoigu said.
He
gave a figure for Ukrainian troop losses but Reuters cannot verify such
numbers, and neither side enumerates its own casualties.
Having
sent in its troops in 2022, Russia now controls about 18% of Ukraine
including Crimea, which it seized and unilaterally annexed in 2014.
It
also holds swathes of four regions in southeastern Ukraine that Putin,
claiming historical and cultural justification, says Kyiv must cede in
their entirety.
Reuters has reported that Putin is ready to halt the war with a negotiated ceasefire that recognises the current battlefield lines, but is prepared to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba
said last month that Kyiv was prepared for talks provided Ukraine's
sovereignty and territorial integrity, recognised by the vast majority
of U.N. member states, were fully respected.
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Editing by Kevin Liffey