At the Peace Summit in Switzerland, the leaders of Germany and Italy sharply criticized the ceasefire conditions put forward by Putin.
On the eve of the event, Russian president Putin set out the conditions under which he was ready to end the war. In particular, he wants Ukraine to completely withdraw from four Ukrainian regions and refuse to join NATO. These demands were slammed by world leaders who attended the Peace Summit, BBC reported.
At the Peace Summit, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Putin’s plan, which actually offered Ukraine to “secede from Ukraine,” “propaganda.”
If President Putin’s proposal sounds like this: we are ready to hold peace talks if Ukraine recognizes the invasion of Ukraine and gives up the occupied parts… I don’t think this proposal is particularly effective,” Meloni said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz voiced a similar view. In his opinion, the Russian president’s ideas are “dictatorial peace.” At the same time, the chancellor insists that Putin’s proposal was not serious but rather related to the peace summit in Switzerland.
Olaf Scholz said that Russia’s proposals to resolve the war in Ukraine were not discussed at the peace summit in Switzerland. “Everyone understands that these proposals were not of serious importance but related to the peace summit in Switzerland,” Scholz briefly commented on Putin’s ultimatums.
The German Chancellor noted that Putin’s demand to Ukraine to cede to Russia Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions (which Russians do not contoll entirely), cease hostilities, and abandon ambitions to join NATO was only aimed at diverting attention from the peace conference.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak believes that Russia tried to disrupt the Peace Summit in Switzerland because it felt threatened by the discussion of the fundamental principles of international law.
The British prime minister stated that Russia, unlike the participants of the summit, is not interested in real peace, and Putin “initiated a long diplomatic campaign against this summit, ordering countries not to attend.”
“We should ask: why does Russia feel so threatened by a summit where the fundamental principles of territorial integrity, food security, and nuclear security are discussed?” he added.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called the idea of freezing the situation on the battlefield “a recipe for future wars of aggression.”
According to the President of the European Commission, the current situation on the battlefield cannot be allowed to continue. “Freezing the conflict today, when foreign troops occupy Ukrainian soil, is not a solution. This is a recipe for future wars of aggression,” she said at the summit.
“Instead, the summit participants should support a comprehensive, just, and sustainable peace for Ukraine. This should also restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” von der Leyen added.
The proposal for a ceasefire from Russian president Putin is an ultimatum that cannot be trusted, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quoted as saying by Reuters. Putin said Russia would end the war in Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to abandon its NATO membership ambitions and surrender entirely four regions claimed by Moscow.
Speaking on Italian TV channel SkyTG24 on the sidelines of the G7 summit, Zelensky said he believed Putin would not stop his military offensive even if his demands for a ceasefire were met.
“These are ultimatum messages, which are no different from messages from the past. He will not stop. This is the same as what Hitler did. That is why we should not trust these messages,” Zelensky said.
At the same time, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is convinced that Putin’s statements show that he is panicking. The politician considers them “ridiculous.” Nevertheless, Rutte is convinced that, at some point, Russia should be involved in the peace process.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said that, to be honest, Vladimir Putin is not talking about negotiations; he is talking about surrender.
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