Russia To Stop 'in A Moment' If Ukraine Meets Conditions

Smoke billows as a member of the Ukrainian armed forces stands at the only escape route used by locals to evacuate the city of Irpin after days of heavy shelling, as Russian troops advance towards the capital, in Irpin, near Kyiv, Ukraine March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Kremlin says it insists on Ukraine’s neutrality
Russia will “complete” the demilitarization of the country
Kyiv wants recognition of separatist regions and loss of Crimea

LONDON, March 7 – Russia has told Ukraine it is ready to end hostilities “in an instant” if Kyiv meets a series of conditions, a Kremlin spokesman said on Monday.

Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow is demanding that Ukraine cease hostilities, change its constitution to secure neutrality, recognize Crimea as Russian territory, and recognize the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

So far, this has been Russia’s most candid statement about the conditions it wants to impose on Ukraine to stop what it calls its “special military operation” that has been going on for 12 days.

Peskov told Reuters in a telephone interview that Ukraine is aware of the conditions. “And they were told that all this could be stopped in a moment.”

There was no immediate reaction from the Ukrainian side.

Russia attacked Ukraine from the north, east and south, shelling cities including Kyiv, Kharkov and the port of Mariupol. The February 24 invasion sparked the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, sparked outrage around the world and led to tough sanctions against Moscow.

But the Kremlin spokesman insisted that Russia was not seeking to make any additional territorial claims against Ukraine, and said it was “not true” that it was demanding the handover of Kyiv.

“We are really finishing the demilitarization of Ukraine. We will finish it. But the main thing is that Ukraine stops its hostilities. They must stop their hostilities, and then no one will shoot,” he said.

On the issue of neutrality, Peskov said: “They should amend the constitution, according to which Ukraine will reject any goal of joining any bloc.”

He added: “We also talked about how they should recognize that Crimea is Russian territory, and that they should recognize that Donetsk and Luhansk are independent states. And that’s all. It will stop in a moment.”

NEW NEGOTIATIONS

Russia’s demands were laid out as Russian and Ukrainian delegations prepared to meet on Monday for a third round of talks aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.

It began shortly after Putin recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since 2014, as independents — an act the West has called illegal.

“It’s not that we are taking Luhansk and Donetsk from Ukraine. Donetsk and Luhansk do not want to be part of Ukraine. But this does not mean that they should be destroyed as a result,” Peskov said.

“For the rest. Ukraine is an independent state that will live as it wants, but on the terms of neutrality.”

According to him, all the demands were formulated and submitted during the first two rounds of negotiations between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine, which took place last week.

“We hope that everything will go well and they will react accordingly,” Peskov said.

According to him, Russia was forced to take decisive action to achieve the demilitarization of Ukraine, and not just recognize the independence of the breakaway regions.

This was done in order to protect the 3 million Russian-speaking population of these republics, who, according to him, were threatened by 100,000 Ukrainian troops.

“We couldn’t just recognize them. What were we going to do with the 100,000-strong army that stood on the border of Donetsk and Luhansk, which could attack at any moment. American and British weapons were brought to them all the time,” he said. said.

In the run-up to the Russian invasion, Ukraine repeatedly and forcefully denied Moscow’s claims that it was going to launch an offensive to retake separatist regions by force.

Peskov said the situation in Ukraine posed a much greater threat to Russia’s security than in 2014, when Russia also amassed 150,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, raising fears of a Russian invasion but limited its actions to the annexation of Ukraine. Crimea.

“Since then, the situation has worsened. In 2014, we began to supply weapons to Ukraine and prepare the army for NATO, bringing it into line with NATO standards,” he said.

“In the end, the scales were outweighed by the lives of these 3 million people in Donbass. We knew they would be attacked.”

Peskov said Russia also had to act in the face of a threat it perceived from NATO, saying it was “just a matter of time” before the alliance deployed missiles in Ukraine, as it did in Poland and Romania.

“We just realized we couldn’t take it anymore. We had to act,” he said.

Reporting by Catherine Belton, editing by Mark Trevelyan, Gareth Jones and Angus McSwan.

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