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Posted: 2024-06-15 02:25:05

The Russian president says he will only end the war in Ukraine if Kyiv agrees to drop its NATO membership ambitions and hand over four provinces Moscow claims as its own.

Kyiv rejected Vladimir's Putin's demands, set out on Friday, local time, as tantamount to surrender.

Mr Putin set out his demands for Ukraine's demilitarisation, unchanged from the day he sent in his troops on February 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, given its democratically elected president is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust.

Ukraine said the conditions were "absurd".

"He is offering for Ukraine to admit defeat," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

"He is offering for Ukraine to legally give up its territories to Russia. 

"He is offering for Ukraine to sign away its geopolitical sovereignty."

Man in jersey shakes hand with an army official

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (right) says Russia's demands are like "some sort of ultimatum".(Reuters: Michael Buholzer/Pool)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Italy's SkyTG24 news channel that Mr Putin's comments amounted to an ultimatum, carefully timed to appear just before a Swiss peace summit for Ukraine. 

"It is clear he (Putin) understands that there will be the peace summit," he said. 

"It is clear he understands the majority in the world are on Ukraine's side, on the side of life.

"And on the eve of the summit, amid air raid sirens, the killing of people and missile attacks, he speaks as though he is issuing some sort of ultimatum."

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Mr Putin was "not in any position to dictate to Ukraine what they must do to bring about peace".

A pile of debris amid an apartment block

Rescuers remove debris following a Ukrainian missile strike in the town of Shebekino in the Belgorod region of Russia.(Reuters: Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout )

Mr Putin has asked for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire territory of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.

"The conditions are very simple," he said. 

Russia claimed the four regions, which its forces control only partially, as part of its own territory in 2022, an act rejected by most countries at the United Nations as illegal.

Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014.

"As soon as they declare in Kyiv that they are ready for such a decision and begin a real withdrawal of troops from these regions, and also officially announce the abandonment of their plans to join NATO — on our side, immediately, literally at the same minute, an order will follow to cease fire and begin negotiations," Mr Putin said.

"I repeat, we will do this immediately. Naturally, we will simultaneously guarantee the unhindered and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian units and formations."

Vladimir Putin gestures with his hand

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his demands are "very simple".(Reuters: Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool)

Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the third year of the war. 

Ukraine says peace must be based on the full withdrawal of Russian forces and the restoration of its 1991 post-Soviet borders.

The weekend summit in Switzerland, which will be attended by representatives of more than 90 nations and organisations, is expected to shy away from territorial issues and focus instead on matters such as food security and nuclear safety in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has said the gathering will be "futile" without Russian representation.

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