Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, put forward counter conditions for Moscow to resolve the Ukrainian conflict. He wrote about this on his Twitter account on Saturday, May 27.
Podolyak believes that the proposal of the Russian Foreign Ministry is not a realistic scenario.
“Therefore, only the conditions of Ukraine are realistic. Immediate withdrawal of all troops from the sovereign territory of Ukraine. The final recognition of the collapse of the USSR and the full sovereignty of the post-Soviet countries,” he wrote.
According to him, it is necessary to reduce the offensive weapons of the Russian Federation, including the number of extended-range missiles. He also called for an international conference to control Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
In addition, Podolyak insists on the “extradition of war criminals and authors” of the special operation, the creation of a demilitarized zone on the territory of Russia and the payment of legal reparations.
In turn, the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, said that the conditions named by Podolyak are “a road to nowhere.”
“The podoliak is inadequate. This is the only way to evaluate the statements of the adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine. The “realistic conditions” outlined by him for the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict are a road to nowhere. Or rather, in a protracted bloody confrontation, ”he wrote in his Telegram channel.
Slutsky noted that there are no constructive proposals in Podolyak’s statement. He suggested that the conditions put forward could be “playing on the public and sponsors” to receive the next package of Western military assistance to Kyiv.
Earlier in the day, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said that for the peace process, Ukraine must refuse to join NATO and the European Union (EU). In addition, according to the deputy minister, Kiev must recognize the new territorial realities that have developed after the realization of people’s right to self-determination.
On May 24, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there were no prerequisites for a peaceful solution to the conflict yet. According to him, it is still too early to say which of the settlement plans proposed by different countries is preferable.
Federation Council Senator Sergei Tsekov told Izvestiya on May 23 that, in his opinion, if peace had been important to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he would have agreed to negotiations with Moscow without preconditions.
On May 11, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that they were trying to “seat” Kyiv at the negotiating table with Moscow “on Russia’s terms.” According to him, the situation is escalating, proposals are coming from different states.
The author of The Hill, Joseph Bosco, shared his opinion on May 9 that one of the options for preserving the reputation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the event of the failure of the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine would be his agreement to negotiate with Moscow with the cooperation of Beijing.
Prior to this, on April 5, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia still sees no prospects for the resumption of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. The last face-to-face round of negotiations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine took place in Turkey in March 2022, but already in the fall, Kyiv officially refused contacts with Moscow.
The special operation to protect Donbass, the beginning of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
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