Putin sets Ukraine surrender as condition for negotiated peace

Photo: Gavriil Grigorov Agence France-Presse via Suptnik Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted on Friday that he wanted a “neutral, non-aligned, nuclear weapons-free, demilitarized and denazified” Ukraine.

France Media Agency in Moscow

Published and updated on June 14

• Europe

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday set a de facto capitulation of Ukraine as a condition for talks, with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky immediately rejecting a “Hitler”-style “ultimatum”. on the eve of a summit in Switzerland devoted to the means of achieving peace and from which Russia is excluded.

Ukraine, the United States and NATO immediately rejected these conditions from the master of the Kremlin.

The Russian president, whose army has for several months regained the initiative on the front against Ukrainian forces lacking men and ammunition, has demanded that kyiv renounce joining NATO and withdraw from the Donetsk regions , Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, which Russia already partially occupies and claims to annex in addition to Crimea.

“As soon as kyiv […] begins the effective withdrawal of troops and will notify the abandonment of its plan to join NATO, we will immediately, this very minute, give the order to cease fire and begin negotiations,” Mr. Putin said in front of the ministry officials Russian Foreign Affairs.

Fulfilling these conditions would constitute a de facto surrender of Ukraine, the objective of which is to reestablish its territorial integrity and sovereignty within internationally recognized borders.

If the Russian army has the initiative on the front, it has suffered considerable losses there for two years and is unable to gain a decisive advantage.

The Kremlin had proclaimed as early as September 2022 the annexation of four regions in the East and South of Ukraine, in addition to that of Crimea in 2014.

“Strategy”

Vladimir Putin insisted on Friday that Ukraine must hand over all of these territories to Russia, even though Moscow is not occupying them only partially and the fighting still rages there.

In the evening, he also stressed on Russian television that 700,000 Russian soldiers were now participating in the operation in Ukraine, almost 100,000 more than he claimed in December.

The Russian president also described the peace summit planned in Switzerland as a “ploy to divert attention” from the real responsibilities in the conflict – according to him those of Ukraine and the West on June 15 and 16 at the initiative of Ukraine. kyiv hopes that the approximately 90 delegations present, despite the absence of China in particular, will reach a consensus to increase pressure on the Kremlin.

“These messages are ultimatum messages […] Hitler did the same thing, when he said “Give me a part of Czechoslovakia and we’ll leave it there”, but no, those are lies”, commented the Ukrainian president for his part , Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with the Italian news channel SkyTG24, on the sidelines of a G7 summit.

“Nazism is here, and it now has the face of Putin,” he added.

His advisor Mykhaïlo Podoliak insisted that the Russian demands constituted “ an offense to international law” as well as to “common sense”.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced “manipulative statements”, and considered that Vladimir Putin had made these remarks on the eve of the summit in Switzerland because “Russia is afraid of real peace.”

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, whose country is the main military and financial backer of kyiv, ruled that Mr. Putin “illegally occupied the sovereign territory of Ukraine [and was] not in a position to dictate to Ukraine what it must do to achieve peace.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, considered that the Russian leader was not acting in “good faith”.

In Italy, members of the G7 (United States, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan) promised Friday to support Ukraine “as much as necessary”, according to a draft joint declaration from which AFP took knowledge.

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“Theft” of Russian assets

Vladimir Putin also denounced Thursday's G7 decision to guarantee a $50 billion loan to Ukraine with future interest on Russian assets frozen since the start of the Russian offensive

< p>“Even if we embellish things, theft is still theft and it will not go unpunished,” he said.

The President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the pure and simple confiscation of the 300 billion euros in assets of the Russian central bank frozen by the West for two years, which they refuse for legal reasons.

On the ground, Ukrainian forces continue to resist multiple assaults, particularly in the east of the country, where Moscow has been gaining ground since the start of the year.

“Almost daily, we repel two or three attacks,” Maxime, commander of a company of tankers in the 59th brigade fighting in the Pokrovsk area, told AFP this week.

“There has been a marked increase in the number of enemy soldiers and they have brought armored vehicles as well as long-range artillery,” added the 38-year-old soldier.

Finally, Ukraine continues to be forced to ration electricity, its energy infrastructure having been ravaged by Russian strikes. On Friday, outages are expected from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. across the country.