Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday demanded that Ukraine effectively surrender to Moscow if it wants to initiate peace talks, provoking outrage from Kyiv and Western nations.
In a defiant speech in Moscow ahead of a major Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland, Putin stated that Russia would stop its offensive only if Ukraine fully withdraws its troops from the east and south and abandons its bid for NATO membership.
The countries have been embroiled in a bloody conflict for more than two years, with no direct peace talks since the early weeks of Russia’s campaign, when it was advancing on the Ukrainian capital.
Kyiv has insisted on Russia’s full withdrawal from its internationally recognized territory, including the annexed Crimean peninsula, as a prerequisite for any peace agreement.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who aims to rally international support for this position at the upcoming summit, denounced Putin’s demands as a territorial “ultimatum” reminiscent of Adolf Hitler.
“Ukrainian troops must be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions,” Putin said in a televised address to Russian diplomats in Moscow.
Russia claimed to have annexed these four regions in 2022, despite not having full control over any of them.
The regional capitals of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia remain under Ukrainian control, meaning Putin is demanding that Ukraine cede significant territory it currently holds as a precondition for negotiations.
“As soon as Kyiv says it is ready to do this and begins really withdrawing troops and officially renounces plans to join NATO, we will immediately, literally that very minute, cease-fire and begin talks,” Putin said.
He added that Russia was seeking “Ukraine’s neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear status, its demilitarization, and de-Nazification.”