“Now [Putin] “The price of peace is to allow Russia to occupy even more Ukrainian territory,” a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council said on Friday, as quoted by the EFE news agency.
“No country in the world can seriously say that this is acceptable under the UN Charter, international law, basic decency or common sense,” said Adrian Watson.
The US president emphasized that Putin was not interested in “negotiating in good faith” and pledged the country’s continued support in defending Ukraine against Russian aggression.
“We will work with the international community to establish the conditions for a just and lasting peace, consistent with the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” Watson said.
“A world where Russia can redraw borders based on its whims, a world in which America is less secure and dictators and autocrats everywhere are emboldened,” the spokesman warned.
Putin has pledged to immediately order a ceasefire in Ukraine and open talks if Moscow begins withdrawing troops from the annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in 2022, abandoning plans to join NATO.
These demands constitute a de facto demand for the surrender of Ukraine, the aim of which is to maintain its territorial integrity and sovereignty, with the withdrawal of all Russian troops from its territory, unless Kiev wishes to join the military alliance.
Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, on Friday described the Russian president’s plan as “contrary to common sense.”
“There are no new peace proposals from Russia. “Putin’s company has simply designed the ‘fixed aggression package’ we’ve heard so many times,” Podoliak said on social network X (formerly Twitter).
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that the Russian president’s proposal was “not made in good faith” and, instead, was in the direction of “over-aggression” of Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of four eastern and southern regions of Ukraine in September 2022, in addition to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The Russian leader noted that Ukraine must hand over all of these areas, even though Moscow has only partially occupied them.
Putin’s proposal came ahead of a peace summit organized by Switzerland that will bring together dozens of world leaders today and tomorrow – but not from Moscow – to try to outline the first steps for peace in Ukraine.
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