Russia maintains peace proposal with Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (Photo: Reuters).

Speaking to reporters on June 24, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Putin's recent peace proposal for Ukraine is still valid and stated that the time frame of this proposal has not changed.

Last week, Russian President Putin put forward new peace proposals for resolving the Ukraine conflict.

Accordingly, Russia proposed that Ukraine recognize the Crimean peninsula, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions as part of Russia. The Kremlin leader also proposed that Ukraine establish a non-nuclear status, agree to demilitarization, de-fascism, maintain neutrality, and lift sanctions against Russia.

The Kremlin leader once again affirmed that Russia is always ready to negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine, even tomorrow, but the parties need to study Moscow's peace proposal.

"Our peace proposals are on the table. It does not depend on us that all parties interested in negotiations will take what is on the table and start negotiations. They can do it tomorrow, but it depends on whether they want to or not," the Russian leader said.

"We are in favor of negotiations, we have never refused them, but not on the basis of some ephemeral forms, but on the basis of the agreements reached after almost a month and a half of difficult negotiations in Istanbul (Türkiye) and Minsk (Belarus). That is the basis for our readiness to continue dialogue with the Ukrainian side," the Russian leader added.

However, Ukraine and its Western allies immediately rejected Moscow's peace proposal.

President Putin said he was not surprised by the West's rejection of his plan but that he was open to the idea for now. He added that talks on the withdrawal of Russian troops "will never happen" and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's government of trying to prolong the conflict.

In another related development, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed yesterday that Moscow will not hold any "backdoor negotiations" with anyone on resolving the Ukraine conflict.

"We do not hold any backdoor negotiations with anyone. The West refuses to hold fair negotiations, not to mention that Mr. Zelensky has banned the entire Ukrainian leadership from negotiating with Russia," Foreign Minister Lavrov said.

Speaking about President Putin's peace proposal, Foreign Minister Lavrov said it was "the result of a sober and constructive analysis of the current reality".

"We have plenty of goodwill. Since 2014, we have repeatedly made proposals to find a mutually acceptable solution to the situation that the West has created in Ukraine. In return, we have repeatedly received rejections," the Russian diplomat said.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/nga-giu-nguyen-de-xuat-hoa-binh-voi-ukraine-20240625060407581.htm