Vladimir Putin lays out terms for Russian ceasefire in Ukraine | BBC News

Vladimir Putin lays out terms for Russian ceasefire in Ukraine | BBC News

the Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said he would start peace talks with Ukraine immediately if its troops pull back from four regions of the country and Ukraine gives up its bid to be part of NATO it comes as leaders of the seven richest Nations continue their Summit in southern Italy where discussions on the war in Ukraine have topped the agenda leaders there have been discussing a deal to raise $50 billion from Frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine with Aid let’s talk to our diplomatic correspondent James landale who joins us there from the G7 in Bari and James how significant a moment is this what we’re hearing there from President Putin you got to think of the war in Ukraine has been fought on three different fronts you’ve got the fighting on the ground you’ve got the industrial arms race to produce as much ammunition as possible for both sides and then you’ve got the sort of geopolitical diplomatic air War to try and win international public opinion and that’s it’s that latter battle that we’re seeing played out at the moment at this Summit the West is doing its best to try and counter The Narrative that says the West is it’s divided that it’s it’s losing patience for its support for Ukraine so that’s why they’ve agreed lots of deals defense packs more money that’s been raised from as you mentioned from Frozen Russian assets the promise of more air defenses and then we’ve now got President Putin’s response which is to say well um I’m in favor of Peace uh just so long as Ukraine pretty much effectively capitulates and hands over huge SES of the East and abandons its support uh for trying to join NATO he’s also I think trying to win a little bit of support in the global South there are many countries emerging economies who really don’t like the war in Ukraine because of the disruption it’s causing to the International Community the economy at the moment and I think President Putin is also uh trying to preempt a summit a gathering of world leaders is it’s going to take place in Switzerland tomorrow where they’re going to be discussing Ukraine’s own peace plan so essentially what we’re seeing here is part of the two and fro on both sides trying to establish what they want to be the dominant narrative in this war um and James your assessment and we talked about this yesterday but that $50 billion loan and it is a loan at this stage and as you touched on there it will be funded by the uh interest that is uh generated on seized Russian assets that not without its controversy but feels like quite a significant moment and could set a precedent for future deals going forward just talk to me about the importance of that 50 billion look Ukraine needs as much money as it possibly can get just to keep its economy afloat to keep its government afloat to keep um enough of its Public Services going to try and repair and reconstruct what’s been destroyed on a pretty regular basis uh by Russian attacks uh anything that can help that I think Ukraine is very desperate for but this money is not going to come tomorrow they’re talking about within this calendar year so there’s quite a lot to to go before this actually this money is generated but from a purely impr principal position yes it is quite a step for the G7 and in future European union members too to say look yeah we are willing to use the profits from the seized Russian assets to try and fund a big loan to Ukraine uh President Putin today said he considers that to be theft and he promised that it would not go unpunished so essentially the argument that he’s trying to get out there is he wants to tell the rest of the world look don’t don’t invest in the west because if they don’t like you they’re going to steal your money that’s his the President Putin’s argument the West is saying look President Putin is an aggressor he has invaded Ukraine the very least he can do is give up his profits to pay for a loan to help Ukraine uh survive and that’s the argument that’s going on at the moment but it is another step forward and it is another demonstration by the West to try and say to the world look actually we are united and we are determined to support Ukraine in the long run because this deal will you know will last for a long time it’ll take a fair amount of time to pay off James good to have your assessment thank you that’s our diplomatic correspondent James landale there joining us from the G7 and as we said uh it’s the response from President Putin that we’re keeping an eye on saying that he would start peace talks with Ukraine immediately in his words if troops pull back from four regions of the country and Ukraine there are a lot of caveats here if Ukraine gives up its bid to be part of NATO well the NATO Chief was asked about those comments a little earlier during a press conference take a listen it’s not for Ukraine to withdraw forces from Ukrainian territory it’s for Russia to withdraw their forces from occupied Ukrainian land and uh this proposal is a proposal that actually means that Russia should have the right to occupy even more Ukrainian land all the four Pro provinces that they claim are not Ukrainian uh so this just demonstrate that this is not a proposal made made in good faith Yan stoltenberg there the head of NATO let’s talk to our Russia editor at BBC monitoring that’s Vitali shevchenko who’s with me Vitali good to see you um your assessment first of all about how significant a moment this is James landale there was saying yes it’s movement but there are a lot of caveats and they’re asking Ukraine to give up a lot they are and these remarks are clearly designed to impress it’s the first time Putin is saying anything like it but they are far-fetched and completely unpalatable to Ukraine because essentially what vadir Putin is demanding is for the Russian presence in occup occupied parts of Ukraine to be cemented and solidified and also expanded to parts of Ukraine from which Russian troops have fled such as hiran and parts of Ukraine where they’ve never been such as zapia and clearly Ukraine doesn’t want this and it has rejected these demands um you say designed to impress to impress who to impress people in Russia and outside of Russia by portraying the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin personally as a force for peace somebody who makes these proposals that are perpetually being rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies and it’s not the first time uh Moscow has made such far-fetched proposals shortly before it invaded Ukraine in 2022 Russia demanded that NATO pull out um out of the whole of Eastern Europe and the Baltic clearly this wasn’t something that NATO was prepared to do so that uh demand was rejected as well and this uh this demand is going to be rejected too is there any way that we can look at this as an opening move um a position from which to negotiate where both sides May creep closer to the table and start discussing a potential end to this war or is this just purely political theater at the moment it’s theatrical but given how badly things have been going for Ukraine it’s not inconceivable to see um a situation when Ukraine will be forced to sit down and talk to Vladimir Putin but then again ukrainians will be asking and they’re already asking can we actually trust lir Putin because in the past he has said we’re not going to Annex Crimea and then they did it in the past he said we’re not going to Annex any Ukrainian regions apart from Crimea and they did just that so there’s clearly an issue with trust as far as lir Putin is concerned and and when we look at what was agreed at the G7 so of course that security pack signed between the US President Joe Biden and the Ukrainian President Vladimir zalinski yesterday a 10-year pack between the US to say we will protect you long into the future now this 50 billion uh deal that is done that loan to Ukraine uh based on the interest from uh from seized Russian assets What will the Kremlin be thinking right now do you think when it looks at that coordinated joined up you know some of it is not new we’ve heard some of this rhetoric before but it feels like there is a shift in the kind of unified response from the allies of Ukraine right now does it uh that’s the position that the West is really Keen to demonstrate given all the delays and problems inse securing funding and Military assistance to Ukraine so the least they can do and this is the least expensive way of doing it is to demonstrate Unity now when it comes to Russia’s response of course they don’t like it of course they’re saying we haven’t been invited to any of these meetings we don’t care you are using our assets abroad in the west to secure loans to Ukraine to use Vladimir Putin’s uh wording that’s just robbery so what essentially comes down to is how the West will be able to force Russia to change its POS position and that’s by sending ammunition um weaponry and money to Ukraine so at this stage what we’re seeing coming out of uh all these important meetings in the west and out of the Kremlin today it’s a war of words um vital it’s really good to get your Insight thank you that’s vital shevchenko there Russia editor at BBC monitoring thank you

Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine would need to withdraw troops from territories Russia claims to have annexed before a ceasefire could begin.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky has called the terms a Hitler-like “ultimatum”.

Ukraine has long said that it will not negotiate with Moscow until Russian forces leave all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea.

Russia’s president also said Ukraine would have to give up on joining Nato before peace talks could start.

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