Putin names conditions for the end of the war
Created: 03/01/2022, 18:00
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
© Alexei Nikolsky/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP/dpa
Vladimir Putin has reiterated his terms for ending Russia's war in Ukraine.
The demands remain unacceptable to the government in Kyiv.
Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed his conditions for ending the "military operation" in Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.
The government in Kyiv must recognize the "people's republics" of Luhansk and Donetsk and Russia's sovereignty over the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the Kremlin announced on Tuesday evening in Moscow.
In addition, Ukraine must be demilitarized and given a neutral status, according to a statement on a phone call between Putin and Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro.
It was the first statement of this kind after representatives of Ukraine and Russia in Belarus on Monday negotiated an end to the war.
Results were not initially communicated after the meeting.
According to the Kremlin, Ukraine must also undertake to continue to do without nuclear weapons in the future.
Putin had previously demanded that Ukraine should not become a member of NATO.
He recognized the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states.
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Putin launched a special military operation last Thursday - officially with the aim of protecting the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine from attacks by Ukrainian nationalists.
Russian troops then invaded Ukraine.
dpa