President Putin names conditions for Ukraine peace talks June 14th 2024

President Putin names conditions for Ukraine peace talks. Kiev must withdraw its troops from Russia’s new territories, the President has said

(Pres. Putin's meeting with the Foreign Ministry Board can be found here on Rumble https://rumble.com/v51izy8-putin-attends-russian-foreign-ministry-board-meeting.html)

President Putin says peace is possible if Ukraine leaves 4 new Russian regions, rules out joining NATO, and the West lifts all its sanctions on Moscow.

Ukraine must remove its troops from Russia’s new regions before any meaningful peace talks can begin, Pres. Putin has said.

Moscow rejects Kiev’s claims of sovereignty over five formerly Ukrainian regions, four of which have joined Russia amid the ongoing hostilities. People in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions voted for the transition in late 2022, though hostilities continue in all of them.

Ukrainian troops must be removed from these territories, Pres. Putin said on Friday at a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior Russian diplomats.

“I stress: the entire territory of those regions as defined by their administrative borders at the time they joined Ukraine [in August 1991],” Pres. Putin stated.

“Our side will order a ceasefire and start negotiations the minute Kiev declares that it is prepared to take this decision and starts actual withdrawal of troops from those regions, and also formally informs us that it no longer plans to join NATO,” the Russian leader pledged.

Pres. Putin outlined the conditions after condemning Kiev’s Western backers for allegedly preventing it from holding peace talks with Moscow while accusing Russia of rejecting negotiations.

“We are counting on Kiev to take such a decision on withdrawal, neutral status, and dialogue with Russia, on which the future existence of Ukraine depends, independently based on the current realities and guided by the true interests of the Ukrainian people and not at Western orders,” Pres. Putin stated.

At this point, Moscow will not accept a frozen conflict, which would allow the US and its allies to rearm and rebuild the Ukrainian military, Pres. Putin claimed. The full resolution of the issue will involve Kiev recognizing the four new regions as well as Crimea as part of Russia, he insisted.

“In the future, all those basic principled positions have to be enshrined in fundamental international agreements. Naturally, that includes the lifting of all Western sanctions against Russia,” Pres Putin stated.

Accepting these terms will allow everyone involved to turn the page and gradually rebuild damaged relations, the president said. Eventually, a pan-European security system that works for all nations on the continent could be created, Pres. Putin added, noting that Moscow has sought this outcome for years.

The Russian president’s keynote remarks came ahead of a Swiss-hosted summit supposedly meant to further peace in Ukraine. Kiev has insisted that Moscow could not be invited to the event because it would try to “hijack” it by promoting alternatives to the “peace formula” pushed by the Ukrainian government.

Pres. Putin claimed that the event was meant to distract public opinion from the “true roots” of the conflict, and that Vladimir Zelensky has usurped power in Ukraine after his presidential term expired last month. Nothing but demagoguery and accusations against Russia can come out of the Swiss gathering, he predicted.

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Kiev rejects Moscow’s new peace proposal

Russian President Putin had offered Ukraine a set of conditions in order to initiate a ceasefire and begin negotiations.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s aide Mikhail Podoliak has rejected a peace initiative put forward by Pres. Putin on Friday, suggesting it was not “realistic.” Pres. Putin has described his proposal as an attempt to end the conflict by initiating a ceasefire and launching bilateral negotiations.

During a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pres. Putin outlined the conditions that should be met in order to immediately halt hostilities and begin peace talks. These include a withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Russia’s new territories, which should be internationally recognized, a promise by Kiev not to join NATO or seek to obtain nuclear weapons, and the lifting of sanctions on Russia.

Pres. Putin emphasized that Moscow is calling for “turning the tragic page of history and gradually restoring relations with Ukraine and Europe.” He warned, however, that if Kiev and the West refuse the proposal, they would be responsible for the continued bloodshed, while the situation on the battlefield will continue to change “not in favor of the Kiev regime.”

Responding to Pres. Putin’s suggestion, Podoliak wrote on X that the Russian president was offering “no real peace proposal” and showing “no desire to end the war.” The Ukrainian aide argued that Pres. Putin’s plan boiled down to Kiev giving up its territories and sovereignty and leaving itself “unprotected” by not joining NATO.

He went on to suggest that Moscow’s plan was a “complete sham” and dismissed it as “highly offensive to international law” and to “common sense,” claiming Russia would continue the conflict in “new formats” if Kiev accepts any of the points of the proposal.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has also criticized Pres. Putin’s proposal, claiming that the request to withdraw Ukraine’s forces from Russia’s new territories was not an indication of good will but of Moscow’s desire to achieve its military goals and “occupy even more Ukrainian territory.”

Stoltenberg dismissed Pres. Putin’s proposal and vowed that NATO members will continue to strengthen their support of Ukraine as command posts in Germany and Eastern European countries will take part in coordinating arms supplies to the country.

Moscow has blasted the rejection of Pres. Putin’s proposal, with Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stating that Kiev and NATO’s refusal indicates their desire to “rob the Ukrainian people of a chance for peace.”

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Moscow reveals further steps after Putin’s Ukraine offer

Russia hopes that Kiev’s Western backers will take heed of the president’s proposal, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said

Russia’s diplomats will communicate President Vladimir Putin’s latest Ukraine peace proposal to Western leaders in “in meticulous detail,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists on Friday. Earlier the same day, the head of state set conditions for peace negotiations with Kiev.

The Russian president’s initiative includes a demand that Kiev withdraw its troops from all former Ukrainian territories that joined Russia following referendums in the fall of 2022 and abandon its plans to join NATO. Moscow is ready to order a ceasefire and start negotiations “the minute” Ukraine agrees to those terms and starts the withdrawal, he told Lavrov and other senior Russian diplomats at a meeting.

Following the event, Lavrov told journalists that he believes the world is already well-aware of the president’s proposal. Moscow has no plans to issue the offer in a formal document, the minister said. Russia’s ambassadors will nevertheless hand the text of Putin’s speech to the relevant foreign officials and clarify the Kremlin’s stance, he said.

“We won’t chase after anyone,” Russia’s top diplomat said, adding that Moscow would simply make its position clear and “look at the reaction” of the foreign nations. He stated that his ministry plans to raise the issue at the meetings of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well as in talks with China and the Latin American and African nations.

The minister also expressed his hope that the initiative would be discussed at the ongoing G7 summit in Italy and at the conference on Ukraine which Switzerland is set to host this weekend.

When further asked by journalist Pavel Zarubin if he believes the latest peace initiative could lead to some meaningful dialogue with the West, Lavrov responded by saying that “hope is the last to die.”

“Those that have ears to hear, let them hear. Those that have brains, let them understand,” the minister said, adding that, although he was “not sure that everything is alright with those organs” when it comes to the Western politicians, he still hopes that some good can come of it.

Putin’s proposal was also lauded by Valentina Matvienko, the head of the Russian Federation Council – the upper house of the national parliament. She described the initiative as a “real peace offer” opening the “only possible path towards the end of the Ukraine conflict.” The Russian president’s words also made it clear that “the lack of will and responsibility on part of the Western elites is the main obstacle on the road towards a durable peace,” she said.

The initiative came just a day before the start of the Swiss-hosted summit supposedly meant to further peace in Ukraine. Kiev insisted that Moscow could not have been invited to the event because it would try to “hijack” the agenda by presenting alternatives to the plan being proposed by the Ukrainian government. Putin stated that the meeting was only meant to distract the public opinion from the real roots of the conflict.

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Ukraine peace terms, Europe’s biggest threat, Zelensky’s fate: Putin outlines Moscow’s foreign policy goals

The Russian president has urged Kiev to accept his new offer and engage in dialogue to ensure its “future existence”

Moscow’s conditions for resolving the Ukraine conflict will require Kiev to recognize that its former regions are now under Russian sovereignty, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

He warned that the current offer is the best Kiev is going to get, as Russia will not allow hostilities to be frozen while the West rearms Ukrainian forces.

Putin outlined Russia’s key policy goals during a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior officials. The following is a recap of the keynote speech.

Missed chance for a just world

The world missed an opportunity to create a better, more just and secure international order in the 1990s, and the US and its allies are to blame, as they refused to respect the interests of other nations, Putin said.

“They decided that they ‘won’ the Cold War and they alone could determine how the world should move on. The practical expression of this attitude was the project for the unrestricted expansion of NATO,” according to the Russian president.

NATO diplomacy victimizes nations

The approach of the US-led military bloc to resolving conflicts has proven to be a disaster, Putin argued. NATO’s brand of diplomacy boils down to “accusing the party they dislike of all sins and crushing it.”

That was done to Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and others, causing much human suffering and destruction, he added.

US is a threat to Europe

Contrary to claims by Western politicians, Russia is not the main threat to European nations, Putin insisted. They are harmed because they depend on the US in virtually all areas.

“Ruling European politicians and EU bureaucrats seem to be more afraid of displeasing Washington than of losing the trust of their own citizens,” according to the Russian president. Unlike European leaders of the past, they are mere “extras”.

The ideology that the US tries to impose on the world to save its “imperial status” is leading to a dead end, Putin warned. This “aggressive messianism based on belief in exceptionalism” keeps international relations from becoming more stable.

West undermines market principles

US hegemony erodes the values that Washington claims to defend, including free competition and the global market economy, according to Putin.

“As it fails to compete even under the rules it wrote to benefit itself, Washington resorts to trade restrictions and protectionism,” he stated. “They apply pressure not only on opponents, but also on allies. Just look how they are draining European economies that are on the brink of a recession.”

The US is seeking to confiscate immobilized Russian sovereign assets, but “theft is theft despite all the chicanery,” he added, as any nation can be targeted next.

Kiev was the aggressor

The West caused the Ukraine conflict, Putin stressed. A large portion of Ukraine’s population was pro-Russian, and no amount of propaganda could break that bond. So Western meddlers opted for violence, when they funded and masterminded the 2014 armed coup in Kiev.

The government that emerged and nationalist forces “unleashed terror” on dissenting Ukrainians in the east, instead of allowing them to peacefully break away, although they had the right to seek self-determination under international law.

“Russia did not start this war. The Kiev regime did,” the president insisted.

West pushed Kiev into war

Since 2014, Moscow has encouraged reconciliation in Ukraine, even as Kiev and its backers stonewalled the efforts, Putin said. When people in Donbass declared independence, Kiev sent in troops.

As Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine to support the Donbas in February 2022, Moscow sought a negotiated peace, he continued. When Russian troops were close to Kiev, there was no intention to besiege the city, only to pressure the Ukrainian government to compromise.

However, Kiev opted for war, apparently on Western orders, delivered personally by then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to Putin.

A ploy to replace Zelensky

Vladimir Zelensky is an illegitimate leader of Ukraine and a criminal under the country’s own laws, since his presidential term expired last month, Putin said. Russia suspects that the West is behind Zelensky’s decision not to hold a presidential election or transfer power, as stipulated by the constitution of Ukraine.

“The true masters of Ukraine – the globalist elites across the ocean – are trying to pin on the current executive branch the burden of unpopular decisions,” he said, referring to policies that Kiev will need to pursue to keep fighting Russia. “Later they will replace them with new people, equally dependent on the West, but with an untarnished reputation.”

Swiss summit is demagoguery

Putin lashed out at the so-called “peace summit” scheduled to take place in Switzerland this weekend. He dismissed it as a Western trick to create the illusion of a global anti-Russian coalition, distract attention from the roots of the conflict, and boost Zelensky’s claim to legitimacy.

“It will all boil down to general demagogic discussions and a new round of accusations against Russia,” the president predicted. The conference excludes Russia, so it cannot produce a solution to the crisis.

No going back to Istanbul deal

The situation has changed since Russia and Ukraine negotiated a potential truce in Istanbul in March 2022. Now Moscow insists that Kiev recognize its sovereignty over former Ukrainian regions, in which people voted in referendums to join Russia, Putin said.

Moscow is willing to reach a ceasefire and start peace talks when Ukraine begins the withdrawal of its troops from those territories, and declares that it no longer intends to become a member of NATO, Putin stressed, insisting that “the future existence of Ukraine depends” on engaging in dialogue with Russia.

If this latest proposal is rejected, the situation will only worsen for Kiev, he warned. Moscow wants the entire problem to be untangled and will not accept a frozen conflict, which would allow the West to rearm Ukraine.

Ultimately, Russia wants a pan-European security architecture, in which the safety of all nations including Ukraine is safeguarded, the president added. Such a system will require the removal of any foreign military presence from the country, he concluded.

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RT Short take : The NATO chief stresses the only way to stop the war is pumping Kiev with ever more weapons. Beijing calls out Washington for its one-sided punitive measures as new sanctions are slapped on China, South Africa, the UAE and Türkiye.