Russia demands Ukraine drop NATO bid, give up regions for ceasefire deal

Lake Lucerne, Switzerland: Ukraine has rejected a deal from Russian President Vladimir Putin for an immediate ceasefire and talks to end the war in exchange for Kyiv withdrawing troops from the four regions that Moscow has claimed as its own.

Putin’s conditions, made on the eve of a major peace summit in the Swiss Alps, also hinge on Ukraine dropping any aspirations to join NATO and include areas Russia has never occupied during its two-year invasion or from which it subsequently withdrew. He also wants Western sanctions, imposed in 2022 in response to his full-scale invasion, lifted.

President Volodymyr Zelensky visiting the training of Ukrainian soldiers at a military training ground in Mecklenburg, Germany.Credit: Getty Images

World leaders – but not from Moscow – will converge on Lake Lucerne this weekend to try to map out the first steps toward peace in Ukraine. The summit, which will be attended by representatives of more than 100 nations and organisations, is expected to shy away from territorial issues and focus instead on matters such as food security and nuclear safety in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has said the gathering will prove “futile” without Russia being represented.

The offer coincided with the leaders of the G7 issuing their starkest warning yet to China over its support for Russia, attacking Beijing for “enabling” Russia’s war in Ukraine, and threatening further sanctions if Beijing keeps supplying material used by Moscow’s defence industry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Switzerland.Credit: AP

The joint statement at the end of their summit in Italy included a far tougher stance towards China than in the past, exposing the escalating frustration both in the US and Europe with Beijing’s critical support to Russia.

“China’s ongoing support for Russia’s defence industrial base is enabling Russia to maintain its illegal war in Ukraine and has significant and broad-based security implications,” the G7 leaders said in a joint statement.

“We call on China to cease the transfer of dual-use materials, including weapons components and equipment, that are inputs for Russia’s defence sector.”

Putin’s demands are the most specific conditions he has set for a possible end to the war.Credit: AP

During a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Friday, Putin said his proposal would provide a “final resolution” to the conflict rather than “freezing it”, and stressed that the Kremlin was “ready to start negotiations without delay”.

“We will do it immediately,” the Russian leader said, adding that the proposal would restore “unity” between the two warring nations and Europe more broadly. His announcement stipulated that Ukraine effectively surrendered the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters the conditions were “absurd”.

“He is offering for Ukraine to admit defeat. He is offering for Ukraine to legally give up its territories to Russia. He is offering for Ukraine to sign away its geopolitical sovereignty,” he said.

Putin claimed to have annexed the regions despite only partly occupying them in the autumn of 2022. Fighting has raged in all four regions in recent months, with Russian forces slowly seizing the initiative after Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive last year and a six-month delay in US military assistance, allowing Moscow to make gains.

“New territorial realities must be recognised,” Putin said. “All these basic principle conditions must be set through fundamental international agreements. Naturally, this involves the cancellation of all Western sanctions against Russia.”

He also demanded that Ukraine abandon its bid to join NATO, a goal enshrined in the Ukrainian constitution and confirmed by the US-led military alliance though without a concrete timeline. The Russian president also called for Kyiv to never develop nuclear weapons and to pursue its “demilitarisation” and “denazification” two vague goals Russia set out at the start of the invasion.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also rejected Putin’s offer during a press conference in Brussels, labelling the pitch as not being made in “good faith.” “It’s not for Ukraine to withdraw forces from Ukrainian territory,” he said. “It’s for Russia to withdraw their forces from occupied Ukrainian land.”

Ukraine wants to join the 32-member military alliance and has demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from all territories.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau listen to Zelensky in Fasano, Italy, during the G7 summit.Credit: Getty Images

Putin’s demands represent the most specific conditions he has set for a possible end to the war since he ordered the full-scale invasion. He made clear he would set out a maximalist position in any peace talks and fight on indefinitely if they were not met.

“Today, we are making another specific, real peace offering. If Kyiv and Western capitals refuse it as they did before, then that’s their issue at the end of the day – their political and moral responsibility for the continued bloodshed,” Putin said.

“Obviously, the facts on the ground at the front will continue to change, not in the Kyiv regime’s favour, and the conditions to begin negotiations will be different.”

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