Russian President Vladimir Putin promised on June 14, 2024 to immediately order ceasefire in Ukraine and begin negotiations if Kyiv started withdrawing troops from the four regions annexed by Moscow and renounced plans to join NATO.
Such a deal appears a non-starter for Kyiv which wants to join military has demanded that Russia withdraw all of its troops from entire Ukrainian territory. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Putin’s proposal.
“We will do it immediately, Putin said in a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. His remarks came as leaders of the industrialised Group of Seven met in Italy and as Switzerland prepared to host scores of world leaders but not from Moscow this weekend to tray to map out first steps toward peace in Ukraine. The US and Ukraine this weekend also signed a ten-year security agreement that they hailed as milestone in relations.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine of February 2022. After Ukrainian forces thwarted a Russian drive to the capital, much of the fighting has focused in the south and the east and Russia illegally annexed regions in the east and the south although it doesn’t fully control any of them. Putin said his proposal is aimed at a final resolution of the conflict in Ukraine rather than freezing it and stressed that Moscow is ready to start negotiations without delay.
Broader demands for peace that the Russian leader listed included was Ukraine’s non-nuclear status, restrictions on its military force and protection of the interests of the Russian speaking populations in the country. All of this should become the part of fundamental international agreements and all Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted. “We are urging to turn this tragic page of history and to begin restoring step by step the unity between Russia and Ukraine along with Europe in general.
Russia doesn’t fully control any of the four regions it illegally annexed in 2022, but Putin insisted on June 14, 2024 that Kyiv should withdraw from them entirely and essentially cede them to Moscow within their administrative borders.
In Zaporizhzhia in southeast, Russia still doesn’t control the regions namesake administrative capital with a pre-war population of about 700,000, and in the neighbouring Kherson region Moscow withdrew from Kherson’s biggest city and capital of the same name in November 2022. Vladimir Putin said that if Kyiv and Western capitals reject his offer, it is their business, their political and moral responsibilities for continuing the bloodshed.
