Russia may withdraw its troops from Ukraine by September this year

UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis expressed hope that Russia will decide to withdraw its troops from Ukraine by September this year.
"We hope that the Russian authorities will decide to withdraw their troops from Ukraine by September this year or sooner, but based on what we have seen, there is no guarantee that this will happen. This will remain a priority issue,".Francis said.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry, named the conditions for negotiations on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. According to him, Ukraine must completely withdraw its troops from the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, after which the Russian side will be ready to begin negotiations.
In addition, Ukraine must officially notify about the abandonment of plans to join NATO. Moscow needs neutral and non-nuclear status of Kyiv, as well as its denazification and demilitarization. At the same time, we are talking about a complete end to the conflict, not about its freezing.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War reported that Vladimir Putin has explicitly rejected Russian participation in meaningful ceasefire negotiations for Ukraine, instead demanding Ukraine’s “irreversible” “demilitarization” as a precondition.
According to the ISW, this stance effectively calls for Ukraine’s surrender before any ceasefire agreement can be reached.
At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, Putin commented on the prospects of a negotiated ceasefire in Ukraine. The ISW notes that instead of his typical “feigned interest” in such negotiations, Putin “outright rejected any ceasefire negotiation process.”
The report highlights that Putin has dismissed all potential mediators for an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, including Western parties he had previously portrayed as his envisioned negotiating partners.
Putin’s primary demand, as reported by the ISW, is Ukraine’s “demilitarization” as a prerequisite for any ceasefire agreement. The Russian president insists that these measures be “irreversible,” arguing that Russia cannot allow the Ukrainian military to use a ceasefire to reconstitute its forces. The report suggests that Putin’s rejection of any ceasefire agreement short of Ukrainian capitulation indicates his confidence in Russia’s ability to achieve victory through continued advances in Ukraine, outlasting Western support, and winning a war of attrition against Ukrainian forces.