Moscow has reiterated its requirements for peace with Ukraine, undermining Western claims of Russian intransigence.
As Western leaders prepared to gather at President Volodymyr Zelensky’s summit on the Ukraine conflict in Switzerland, Russian President Vladimir Putin preempted negotiations by promoting Moscow’s own peace plan during an address at the Russian Foreign Ministry Friday evening.
Putin’s speech at the venue, where he has traditionally offered important statements on foreign policy, restated many of the demands Russia has made dating back to the early days of the country’s special military operation, including the neutrality and demilitarization of the Kiev regime. Putin also reiterated that Moscow views Ukraine’s accession to NATO as an existential threat, insisting Ukraine must abandon attempts to join the anti-Russia bloc.
“Ukraine must return to neutrality,” said security analyst Mark Sleboda on Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program, summarizing Putin’s address. “It cannot join NATO. It must not try to gain nuclear weapons, and it must respect the rights of Russian speakers and Russian ethnics and other minorities, like Hungarian speakers and so forth, in the country.”
The international relations expert joined hosts Ted Rall and Angie Wong Monday to discuss the implications of Ukraine’s much-derided “peace summit” this weekend at a luxury Swiss resort.
The communiqué that emerged from the meeting represented “a watered down version of Zelensky's 'peace formula,' a demand from the losing side of the conflict, a childish demand for Russia's unconditional surrender,” said Sleboda.
Wong noted that many countries present at the summit opted not to sign the statement, citing the futility of negotiations that did not include representatives from Russia.
“Two of them then withdrew their signatures – Iraq and Jordan,” noted Sleboda. “The countries who signed it were mostly the West and a few client states. That's essentially it.”
“Evidently (US Vice President) Kamala Harris and (German Chancellor) Olaf Scholz – the conference was such an exercise in damage control that they left early,” he continued. “They didn't even stay for the signing, for the crafting or the signing of the statement of this not peace party. They left right after the opening ceremonies and the photo op. So that tells you how important the US and Germany thought the work being done there was.”
The analyst said any potential impact of the event was diminished after Putin’s address Friday, undermining Western claims of Russian intransigence. Moscow’s peace formula called for Kiev to withdraw from the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which have opted to join Russia via popular referenda, and also continued to demand the denazification of Ukraine.
Western countries have continued to downplay the influence of anti-Russia neo-Nazi elements in the country, a problem that was widely acknowledged in mainstream media before Moscow launched its special military operation in Ukraine in 2022.
“Everytime I listen to Putin's and Russia's demands, what strikes me is that they've been basically the same,” said host Ted Rall. “It's very interesting that even though their military position has improved… with the exception of the two areas that you're mentioning, Kherson and Zaporozhye, pretty much not that much has really changed much.”
“If this were America in the same situation, the demands would keep escalating, right? ... Americans are dealing with a country that has a different temperament and its politicians have a different temperament than our own, and that's part of the problem why it's difficult to resolve things,” he argued, suggesting the consistent nature of Russia’s requirements for peace undermines Western claims the country is fighting a war of aggression.
But Sleboda reiterated that Moscow would not allow Ukraine to persist as an existential threat to the Russian state, noting the country would be forced to continue westward if Kiev is continuously weaponized as an anti-Russia beachhead.
“This is the last peace proposal by Russia,” he warned. “The next will not even be presented as a negotiation. They will be a set of unconditional surrender terms delivered to the Kiev regime and the West at the end of this conflict.”
Russia Willing to Commit to Peaceful Negotiations, as Ukraine Continues to Rely on Western Aid
At the end of March of this year, a nationwide poll asked Ukrainians how they thought their draft-age acquaintances might respond to a call to serve. Just 10% who responded to the poll said they would accept.
Ukraine’s current military recruitment campaign has fallen short of expectations, a recent article from The Conversation suggested. The recruitment plan was first announced on April 16, 2024, with the goal of enlisting “hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainian men”, the report claimed.
However, the effort has been met with “public skepticism, draft dodging and opposition to unpopular, heavy-handed attempts to root out those not heeding the call to sign up,” the report writes, adding that it has “left Ukraine struggling to fill the positions officials say are needed to beat back the invading army.”
Nicolai Petro, a professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island, sat down with Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Monday. According to Petro, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s specific proposals on Ukraine, and world development in the future comes down to “two points”.
“Putin simplified the path to negotiation, because from Russia's perspective it's now boiled down to just two points,” said Petro. “Withdraw Ukrainian troops from the four regions that have been admitted to Russia and, secondly, issue an official statement. Ukraine should issue an official statement that it does not intend to join NATO. And as soon as that happens, Russia is willing to commit to an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations.”
“So why is this easier than what Ukraine proposed? Well, because Ukraine has ten sets of demands rather than just one from Russia's perspective, which is an official statement that Ukraine will not join NATO,” he added. “The second thing that's interesting about Russia's proposal is that it is offering something that Ukraine has not offered, which is an end to the bloodshed. In other words, you want to stop the fighting and the killing? Just withdraw troops.”
Issues with Ukraine’s draft also highlight the fundamental issue: without funding from Western allies, Ukraine is likely to “exhaust its resources long before Russia does”, The Conversation report writes.
In December of 2023, former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi told leader Volodymyr Zelensky that he needed nearly 500,000 more troops. But a nationwide poll conducted at the end of March showed that Ukrainians believe only 10% of their draft-age acquaintances might respond to a call to serve.
“And thirdly,” the professor continued. “Putin's proposal essentially [shows the lie of] Western statements that Russia intends to conquer all of Ukraine and then all of Europe, because he now specifically says Russia's territorial ambitions are limited to the four occupied regions of Crimea, which is why I think it is aimed primarily not at Ukraine."
“The Ukrainian, Western position is we cannot negotiate and we don't want to negotiate because negotiation itself would be an acknowledgment of an immoral act of aggression, and therefore there's nothing to negotiate, which is why we have this summit in Switzerland not even including Russia.”
“So we're not actually negotiating or willing to negotiate anything,” Petro said. “We're simply making a statement of defiance against a Russian invasion versus the other side, in Russia's case, which is saying [Russia] feels threatened by NATO's expansion, which is why [they are] taking these actions. There's also humanitarian reasons, but we are, we have always been and continue to be willing to negotiate on what our mutual security interests are.”
Sputnik’s Wilmer Leon noted that the US has a habit of “capitulation” when it comes to negotiating. He suggests that the US is only willing to talk, if who they are negotiating with meets their demands first. Russia has repeatedly indicated that they are willing to discuss peace plan negotiations, and said this spring that an aborted 2022 peace deal between Russia and Ukraine could still be used as the basis for new negotiations.
“I think the Russian position, and this is what I think Putin has articulated not only in this last speech, there is a win-win scenario here. And the win-win scenario is: let's have an agreement that allows for mutual security for all sides. And Putin, a number of times in his recent speech, reiterated that Russia has tried to take into account what are legitimate Ukrainian security interests,” said Petro.
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