Before the Global Peace Summit on Ukraine, which will be held in Switzerland on June 15 and 16, Russian leader Vladimir Putin put forward his conditions for a "ceasefire" on which the Russian Federation would agree to negotiations.
In a speech to Russian diplomats on June 14, Putin said that Ukrainian troops should be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions within their administrative borders, and that Kyiv should formally abandon plans to join NATO. Only then will Russia go to negotiations.
He also demands that Ukraine recognize Crimea and four oblasts as legal territories of the Russian Federation, and that the West lift all sanctions. Putin claims that then it will not be a freezing of the conflict, but its final end. If Kyiv and the West refuse this "real peace proposal", they will be "responsible for continuing the bloodshed".
Reaction of Ukraine
As reported by Reuters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy called these demands "ultimate messages that do not differ from the past demands" of the Russian Federation. He compared Putin to Adolf Hitler and said that he will not stop the war, so the statements of the Russian leader should not be trusted.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine issued a statement in which the purpose of such Putinʼs signals was called an attempt "to mislead the international community, undermine diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving a just peace, and split the unity of the world majority around the goals and principles of the UN Charter."
The agency says that Putin wants to disrupt the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland with his ultimatum regarding the start of "peace talks". They added that Russia plans "not peace, but the continuation of the war, the occupation of Ukraine, the destruction of the Ukrainian people and further aggression in Europe."
The adviser to the head of the Presidentʼs Office Mykhailo Podolyak called Putinʼs proposals "the standard set of an aggressor" that aims to deprive Ukraine of its sovereignty and subjectivity. He added that such demands are a capitulation that Ukraine will not accept.
- On June 10, 2024, Swiss President Viola Amgerd, who will host the Peace Summit for Ukraine, announced that almost 90 of the 160 invited delegations had confirmed their participation. 40 of them will be presented at the highest level. The spokesman of the President of Ukraine said at the beginning of June that Kyiv had received confirmation from 107 countries and organizations regarding their participation in the conference.
- On June 11, Radio Svoboda reported that the number of countries and organizations that confirmed their participation in the Summit had dropped to 78.
- China and Russia will not be at the Summit. Vice President Camila Harris and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will represent the United States.
- The Secretary of the National Security Council Oleksandr Lytvynenko said that the task of the Summit is to create fair conditions for further peace negotiations with Russia, as well as to demonstrate to everyone that in the modern world goals cannot be achieved through war.