The Russian chief’s remarks appeared designed to get forward of a global “peace” convention organized by Ukraine in Switzerland this weekend. President Volodymyr Zelensky is anticipated to reiterate his name for Russia’s full withdrawal of navy forces and the tip of Moscow’s unlawful occupation of Ukraine.
“As we speak we’re making one other concrete, actual peace proposal,” Putin mentioned, addressing Russia’s high diplomats in a televised assembly. “If Kyiv and the Western capitals refuse it, as earlier than, then ultimately, that’s their enterprise and their political and ethical accountability for the continuation of bloodshed.”
Zelensky has said repeatedly that Ukraine is not going to give up sovereign territory and, talking Friday on the Swiss convention, he rapidly dismissed Putin’s supply as one which “can’t be trusted.”
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“He is not going to cease,” Zelensky mentioned about Putin, drawing a parallel with Hitler’s aggressive growth earlier than the outbreak of World Struggle II.
“It’s the identical factor that Hitler used to do,” he added. “Because of this we must always not belief these messages.”
The Russian chief’s broader calls for included cementing Ukraine’s “impartial, nonaligned, nonnuclear standing” and lifting all Western sanctions towards Russia. Putin additionally doubled down on the ill-defined targets of “denazifying and demilitarizing” Ukraine, goals that he used as pretexts for the invasion in February 2022, primarily signaling that his proposed deal envisions a de facto unconditional give up of Ukraine.
Putin has repeatedly and falsely insisted that Russia is combating to oust Nazis from Ukraine and that Russia was pressured to invade as a result of it was underneath menace from NATO powers.
Putin’s calls for got here a day after President Biden, at a information convention with Zelensky at a gathering of the Group of Seven in Italy, mentioned that the USA was dedicated to supporting Ukraine for the lengthy haul.
“We’ve taken three main steps on the G-7 that collectively present Putin he can’t wait us out,” Biden instructed reporters as he appeared with Zelensky on the Italian lodge villa the place he’s staying. “You can not divide us. And we’ll be with Ukraine till they prevail on this battle.”
However in an indication of Russia’s personal resolve to combat till victory, Putin on Friday, at a televised occasion with embellished troopers, mentioned that almost 700,000 Russian troops have been energetic within the battle zone in Ukraine — greater than triple the February 2022 invasion drive, which was estimated at 150,000 to 200,000.
In Brussels, NATO Secretary Normal Jens Stoltenberg mentioned that Putin was attempting to satisfy his aims by reaching past the capabilities of his navy.
“It is a proposal that truly implies that Russia ought to obtain their battle goals, by anticipating that Ukrainians ought to quit considerably extra land than Russia has been capable of occupy up to now,” Stoltenberg mentioned at a gathering of the alliance’s protection ministers. “So this isn’t a peace proposal. It is a proposal of extra aggression, extra occupation.”
In a current survey, greater than 90 p.c of Ukrainians mentioned they imagine Russia desires to enter peace negotiations to offer Moscow time to organize one other assault.
Putin, nonetheless, insisted that Russia is open to a deal.
“The essence of our proposal will not be some sort of short-term truce or suspension of fireside, because the West would need it to revive losses, rearm the Kyiv regime, put together it for a brand new offensive,” he mentioned. “I repeat, we’re not speaking about freezing the battle however about ending it.”
Putin’s feedback marked a uncommon event through which he explicitly set out circumstances for ending the battle in Ukraine. For the reason that begin of the invasion, his targets typically appeared to shift drastically, particularly after it turned clear Moscow had overestimated its capability to hold out a swift and decisive assault.
Nonetheless, Putin’s laborious line and maximalist stance mirror the Russian chief’s confidence after new advances on the battlefield. Moscow in current months has been emboldened by fractures in Western assist for Ukraine, and Putin appears intent on capturing as a lot territory as doable forward of the U.S. presidential election in November and the prospect of negotiating a take care of Donald Trump.
Impartial analysts mentioned Putin supplied no compromises or concessions on Russia’s half.
“This isn’t a peace plan however a sequence of maximalist calls for directed on the West and Ukraine in alternate for ending hostilities,” mentioned Tatiana Stanovaya, the founding father of R. Politik, a Russian political consultancy, now based mostly in France. “Moscow gives no concessions; there is no such thing as a scope for compromise.”
The checklist of calls for doesn’t characterize something essentially new, as Putin beforehand said that Russia would by no means voluntarily quit territory it claims to have annexed within the occupied Ukrainian areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Russia hardly controls all the territory that Putin has claimed to annex in violation of worldwide legislation — which means a Ukrainian give up on Putin’s phrases would cede Russia much more territory than it now occupies.
Russia was by no means capable of seize Zaporizhzhia metropolis, the regional capital, and its troops have been pressured to withdraw from Kherson metropolis, capital of the Kherson area, in late 2022.
Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Middle, mentioned that Putin had killed any probability of negotiation by taking an excessively maximalist opening place however that he might need succeeded in convincing nations distrustful of the West that he’s open to peace talks.
“Putin is elevating the stakes, maybe to start out negotiations,” Kolesnikov mentioned. “However he raised them so excessive he blocked the very chance of negotiations, though he attracted the eye of the World South and China with a message ‘I suggest a peace plan, however they don’t hearken to me.’”
Putin’s speech was timed to preempt the Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace summit that’s anticipated to be attended by officers from some 90 nations.
Russia was not invited, and the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed the occasion as pointless in consequence, however Stanovaya mentioned Moscow was really involved about dropping floor in worldwide opinion. “Moscow views the Swiss convention as an escalating motion towards Russia, an effort to solidify an anti-Russian stance globally, and the Kremlin is set to thwart this,” she mentioned.
Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.
