MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow, demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.
On the eve of a conference in Switzerland to which Russia has not been invited, Putin set out maximalist conditions at odds with the terms demanded by Ukraine, apparently reflecting Moscow’s growing confidence that its forces have the upper hand in the war.
He restated his demand for Ukraine’s demilitarisation, unchanged from the day he sent in his troops on Feb. 24, 2022, and said an end to Western sanctions must also be part of a peace deal.
He also repeated his call for Ukraine’s “denazification”, based on what Kyiv calls an slur against its leadership.
Ukraine said the conditions were “absurd”.
“He is offering for Ukraine to admit defeat. He is offering for Ukraine to legally give up its territories to Russia. He is offering for Ukraine to sign away its geopolitical sovereignty,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.
Putin needs to be in Hague. That’s step 1 of denazification.
Step 2 is jailing the azov brigade
The Azov Brigade was depoliticized all the way back in 2015, despite the constant claims of Russia to the contrary, when they were actually integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard.
If any nazis remain after Ukraine has won the war, they will probably be criminalized. Just like USA just recently declared a scandinavian neo-nazi organization as terrorists.
The only non-fascist power on this planet is the West. I have some hopes about China on this front, but so far they have not stepped up in any serious way and are more a pro-fascist power with their clandestine support for authoritarian governments like Russia and North Korea.