On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from territories annexed by Russia is a prerequisite for any peace settlement in the ongoing conflict. This statement was made during a visit to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, ahead of the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland over the weekend.
Putin indicated that if Ukraine renounces its pursuit of NATO membership, Russia would be ready to cease fire and enter negotiations immediately.
His remarks were aimed at the current G7 summit in Italy and the upcoming Ukraine event in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock, which opens on Saturday.
Putin emphasized that the affiliation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson with Russia is non-negotiable.
He insisted that Ukraine should withdraw its military from the parts of these regions that it still controls.
The Russian leader outlined what he described as Russia’s minimum demands to resolve the conflict definitively, rather than freezing it.
He reiterated the demands he made at the start of the invasion in February 2022: the creation of a neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free Ukraine, which should also be disarmed and “denazified”—a term widely interpreted in the West as the installation of a Russia-approved leadership in Kyiv.
Currently, Russia occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it illegally annexed in 2014.
Despite this, Ukraine remains committed to its goal of retaking the occupied territories, including Crimea.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has also called for the prosecution of Russian war crimes and demanded Russian reparations for the destruction caused by the invasion.
