Russia VS Ukraine the parties’ demands for peace
2022.11.30 10:00
Russia VS Ukraine the parties’ demands for peace
Budrigannews.com – On February 24, in what President Vladimir Putin referred to as a “special military operation,” Russia invaded Ukraine. The war is now 10 months old.
A summary of what each side has said about their conditions for a possible peace settlement is provided here.
According to Kiev, peace talks can only take place if Russia stops attacking Ukrainian territory and pulls its troops out of Ukraine.
Although Ukraine has not emphasized that condition in recent weeks, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that talks would not be possible as long as Putin remains in power after Putin declared the annexation of Ukrainian territory in September.
Kyiv has publicly demanded that Russia give up all of its territory and has ruled out giving Russia any land in exchange for peace. This includes territory held by Russia or its proxies since 2014, including portions of two eastern provinces known as the Donbas and the Crimea Peninsula, in addition to areas that Moscow has taken since the invasion this year.
“All sections of Ukraine’s state border with Russia must be restored.At a G20 summit in the middle of November, Zelenskiy stated, “This will result in a real and complete cessation of hostilities.”
Zelenskiy gave a speech to the G20 in which he presented what he called a 10-point peace plan.It comprised:
– the expansion of the Black Sea grain deal, which guarantees Ukraine’s exports and is mediated by the United Nations and Turkey; – Russia’s renunciation of “nuclear blackmail,” a reference to what Kyiv claims is Moscow’s repeated shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and thinly veiled threats of the use of nuclear weapons.
Zelenskiy suggested that the deal include two additional Ukrainian ports: the deployment of international observers to Ukraine’s infrastructure facilities to assess the damage that has already been done and prevent future attacks from Russia; the limitation of prices for Russian energy resources to prevent them from being used as weapons; the release of all prisoners and deportees; the establishment of a special tribunal on the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine and the creation of a mechanism to award Kyiv reparations for damages;effective security assurances for Ukraine; and a Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated on November 17 that “these goals may be achieved either via the special military operation or via negotiations,” stating that Moscow’s position was crystal clear.
In point of fact, Russia’s objectives have not been fully established and appear to have evolved in response to battlefield setbacks. Its actions contradict some of its public statements about its goals, such as its initial claim that it did not want to seize Ukrainian land.
At first, Moscow stated that its goal was to “denazify” Ukraine by removing leaders it deemed to be nationalists and “disarm” it so that it would not pose a threat to Russia.
Western nations believe that Russia’s true initial objectives were to overthrow Ukraine’s pro-Western government and defeat the country’s military, both of which it was unable to accomplish during the initial weeks of the war.
Moscow has emphasized its objectives of asserting control over occupied territory in southern and eastern Ukraine since Russian forces were defeated on the outskirts of Kyiv and forced to withdraw from northern Ukraine.
At the beginning of the war, Putin denied having territorial ambitions, stating:We have no intention of occupying Ukrainian territory. We do not intend to compel anyone to do anything.”
However, at the end of September, Putin declared the “forever” annexation of four regions of Ukraine that his troops had partially occupied.
Two of the four territories that Russia claims have not yet been defined.It has stated that it is committed to the complete “liberation” of the two Donbas regions, which had been partially ruled by pro-Russian governments since 2014.
As a precondition for any peace agreement, Moscow has repeatedly stated that Ukraine must recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
Russia demanded legally binding assurances that Ukraine would never join the transatlantic alliance led by the United States prior to its invasion.Russia considers NATO’s encroachment on its borders to be an existential threat, so this remains a “red line.”
Moscow stated that Ukraine had been contemplating adopting a neutral status in exchange for unspecified security guarantees prior to the collapse of peace talks with Kiev in March.
At the time, the Kremlin informed Reuters that Kyiv would have to make “amendments to the constitution according to which Ukraine would reject any aims to enter any bloc,” in order to maintain neutrality.
However, Ukraine has submitted a formal application to join NATO since then.
