Dmitri Peskov insists on the conditions placed by Moscow: “If Ukraine deposits the weapons and withdraws from these regions, the military operations will cease”

The Ukraine war would end “instant” if the Kiev authorities agreed to withdraw from the territories they currently control and to give up the adherence to the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), said the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, in an interview, in April 23 Moscow on the cessation of the conflict that Ukraine and its international allies have repeatedly rejected.

Peskov presented the requirements of Moscow to cease fire, including the full recognition of Russia's claims on the four Ukrainian regions that the Russian army occupies partially, Donansk, Luhansk, Herson and Zaporojie, the status of neutrality for Ukraine and the cessation of any Western military support.

“If Ukraine is submitting weapons and withdraws from these regions, military operations will cease instantly,” Peskov said. “These four regions are registered in our Constitution as an integral part of Russia,” the spokesman of President Vladimir Putin insisted, according to The Kyiv Independent.

The Kremlin annexed the four Ukrainian regions following vehemently challenged referendums by the International Community, at the end of 2022, including the provision that these Ukrainian provinces are part of the Russian Federation.

Although Moscow has declared the Crimea Peninsula, annexed since 2014, and all four Ukrainian regions as part of Russia, Russian forces do not control them now. Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine's territory, including almost the entire Luhansk region, two -thirds of Donets and about 73% of Zaporojie and Herson, as well as the entire Crimea Peninsula.

Peskov also rejected the legitimacy of the so-called “coalition of goodwill” (“coalition of the willing”), a group of 31 nations that have committed to send peace forces and to provide security guarantees in case of a peace agreement with Moscow.

“If this coalition exists before or after signing an agreement is a detail for us,” he said. “The most important thing is the place from which these soldiers come from,” Peskov said.

Russia considers any development of foreign troops, especially from NATO countries, a risk of security, according to the Kremlin representative.

Asked if Russia considers military expansion beyond Ukraine, Peskov rejected the idea. He insisted that Russia has no “territorial problem or claim” towards the Baltic or Nordic states. Moscow, however, denied that he intends to invade Ukraine just before the beginning of the “special military operation”, which was started in February 2022.

The Kremlin spokesman also praised the US President Donald Trump as a “powerful leader” willing to engage in dialogue, suggesting that this is different from the previous American administration. “Putin appreciates strong people,” Peskov said.

The final proposal of the Trump Administration for the conclusion of the war between Russia and Ukraine would include major concessions to Russia, including the US recognition of Moscow's control over the Crimea Peninsula, together with the “de facto” recognition of the Russian forces of the four Ukrainian regions, wrote the US publication on Tuesday.

Axios noted that the security guarantees proposed for Ukraine remain vague.

The management of the state of Ukraine, together with its European partners, have firmly rejected any agreement by which the sovereign territories of Ukraine are ceded.

“This violates our constitution. This is our territory, the territory of the Ukrainian people,” said Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelenski on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump was rebuked Zelenski after he announced that Ukraine will not recognize the occupation of the Crimea Peninsula by Russia, a statement that the Republican has cataloged as “an incendiary statement” which will make the conclusion of a peace agreement with Moscow, reported previously during the day.

“This statement is very harmful to peace negotiations with Russia,” Trump wrote, in a message published on his social network, Social Truth.

The White House leader also stated that the Crimea Peninsula was lost years ago “and it is not even a discussion point.”

“No one asks Zelenski to recognize Crimea as a Russian territory, but if he wants Crimea, why didn't they fight for her eleven years ago, when he was taught to Russia without a firearm?” Trump wrote on Wednesday, in his Post on Social Truth.

Previously, US Vice President JD Vance has warned that Washington may give up efforts to intermediate a armistice in Ukraine if Moscow and Kiev do not agree with the terms currently in question. “I made a very explicit proposal to both Russians and Ukrainians, and it is time for them to say” yes “or that the United States will withdraw from this process,” Vance told reporters during a four -day visit to India.

The claims of JD Vance, similar to some previously issued by President Donald Trump, came on the day when top diplomats in the US and Europe did not show up to a new round of peace in Ukraine in London.

“I think the time has come to make, if not the final step, one of the final steps – namely, at a general level, the parties to say that we will stop the crimes, that we will freeze the territorial lines at a level close to the one in which it is today,” said Vance.

The US Vice -President acknowledged that the plan would require both Russia and Ukraine “to give up some of the territory they currently own.”

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