Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday outlined the conditions for Moscow to initiate peace talks with Ukraine, over two years after the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Putin also demanded that Ukraine commit to abandoning its long-standing goal of joining the NATO military alliance
As per a Google-translated Telegram update from the Russian state news outlet Tass, the conditions include the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, which Russia illegally annexed just months after beginning hostilities in September 2022.
Putin also demanded that Ukraine commit to abandoning its long-standing goal of joining the NATO military alliance, which is led by Western countries—a goal that Moscow views as a threat to its security interests. Ukraine has consistently declared that it will not cede any territory to Russia.
Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the third year of the war, and Ukraine says peace can only be based on a full withdrawal of Russian forces and the restoration of its territorial integrity.
President Vladimir Putin also stated that the West’s confiscation of Russian sovereign assets amounted to theft and would not go unpunished. Speaking at a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials, Putin remarked that the West’s actions towards Moscow indicated that “anyone” could be next and might suffer a similar Western asset freeze.
Putin’s comments came a day after the leaders of the Group of Seven major democracies reached an outline agreement to provide $50 billion in loans to Ukraine, utilizing interest from Russian sovereign assets that were frozen following Moscow’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, which it termed a special military operation.
