MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow, demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.
On the eve of a conference in Switzerland to which Russia has not been invited, Putin set out maximalist conditions at odds with the terms demanded by Ukraine, apparently reflecting Moscow’s growing confidence that its forces have the upper hand in the war.
He restated his demand for Ukraine’s demilitarisation, unchanged from the day he sent in his troops on Feb. 24, 2022, and said an end to Western sanctions must also be part of a peace deal.
He also repeated his call for Ukraine’s “denazification”, based on what Kyiv calls an slur against its leadership.
Ukraine said 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,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.
The Azov Brigade was depoliticized all the way back in 2015, despite the constant claims of Russia to the contrary, when they were actually integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard.