As soon as Ukraine begins withdrawing troops from Donbass and Novorossiya and commits not to join NATO, Russia will cease fire and will be ready for negotiations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the meeting with the leadership of the country's foreign ministry.
Russia is making another real peace proposal today, but if the West and Kiev reject it, they will be responsible for the bloodshed, as the president highlighted.
The realities on the ground will continue to change, not in Kiev's favor, and the conditions for starting negotiations will be different, the head of state underlined.
Russia proposes not to freeze the conflict but to end it, the leader explained his initiative.
Russia's peace conditions are outlined right before the peace conference on Ukraine in Switzerland, which will be held on June 15-16. Russia will not attend the event.
Roots of Ukraine Conflict
As for the roots of the Ukrainian conflict, Putin explained that they are not in bilateral relations; they are a consequence of the West's aggressive policy. NATO tried to turn Ukraine into its base against Russia and did everything to set the peoples against each other, the leader underscored.
Russia didn't start the war in Ukraine; it was Kiev that began military actions against citizens who declared their independence, he said.
"The conflict involving Ukraine is not a conflict between two states, much less between two peoples united by a common history and culture, spiritual values, millions of kinship, family, and human ties. The roots of the conflict do not lie in bilateral relations. What happened in Ukraine is a direct result of the world and European development of the late 20th - early 21st century. The aggressive, reckless, and absolutely adventurous policy that the West has been pursuing and continues to pursue all these years, long before the beginning of the special military operation," he elaborated.
Russia, which wanted the Ukrainian crisis to be resolved, was deceived by the West, the head of state noted. According to him, Russia at first did not plan to storm Kiev; troops were there to push the Ukrainian side to negotiate.
The consequences of the crisis are affecting the entire planet, the president noted.
Commenting on the Ukraine peace process, the leader noted that in 2022, Moscow and Kiev managed to reach mutually beneficial agreements and solve complex issues, but Ukraine itself suspended the dialogue.
He revealed that Kiev, in exchange for security guarantees, agreed to limit the size of the armed forces, not to deploy foreign military contingent and to refuse exercises. Ukraine rejected the path to peace at the West's instructions, Putin said.
The president highlighted that Ukraine needed the provocation in Bucha to explain its refusal to make agreements with Russia.
In March 2022, Moscow did not rule out maintaining Ukraine's sovereignty over the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, but on the condition that Russia has land access to Crimea, he stressed.
Cancellation of Presidential Elections in Ukraine
Presidential elections in Ukraine in 2024 were scheduled to be held in March. However, the vote was called off due to martial law and general mobilization in the country. On May 20, Volodymyr Zelensky's five-year stint as Ukrainian president came to an end.
Zelensky's presidential term has expired along with his legitimacy, which cannot be restored by any tricks, Putin said, adding that the source of power of the Kiev regime is an armed putsch.
It is the Verkhovnya Rada of Ukraine that is the legitimate body, in contrast to the executive authority of Ukraine, the head of state highlighted.