RUSSIA demanded yesterday that Ukraine agree to humiliating terms of surrender — in the most outrageous snub yet to peace-maker Donald Trump.
Vladimir Putin has made it clear he does not want to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and agree to end the bloody 3½-year conflict.
APVladimir Putin has made it clear he does not want to end the conflict[/caption]
GettyPutin launched strikes on Kyiv, killing dozens of civilians including children[/caption]
East2WestThe strikes also hit the building of the British Council[/caption]
Instead, the tyrant had his foreign ministry trot out a list of impossible demands, including Ukraine’s total disarmament and the country cutting all military ties to the West.
Press chief Maria Zakharova said: “We proceed from the assumption that the agreement must include demilitarisation, denazification, neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status for Ukraine.”
She also ranted that Kyiv had to cave in on “protection of the rights of the Russian language and the Russian-speaking population, and an end to persecution of canonical Orthodox Christianity”.
The hardline ultimatum has been authorised by Putin knowing that Mr Zelensky cannot agree to leave his nation defenceless against further land grabs with no Western backing.
Putin is still stalling following appalling strikes on Kyiv, killing dozens of civilians including children and hitting the building of the British Council.
The dictator’s official spokesman Dmitry Peskov also made it clear that Putin has no intention of sitting down with Mr Zelensky any time soon.
He said: “He does not rule out the possibility of such a meeting, but believes that any meeting, any summit meeting, must be well- prepared on an expert level.
“At this point, it cannot be said that the expert work is, shall we say, in full swing.”
The snub comes less than two weeks after US President Donald Trump met Putin in Alaska.
Trump’s patience appears to have run out after Putin repeatedly flouted an agreed 50-day ceasefire.
The US State Department has approved a £610million potential sale of air munitions and related equipment to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, European leaders yesterday outlined plans for a 40-kilometre buffer zone between the Ukrainian and Russian front lines.
The no man’s land would be created as part of a deal to end the war, diplomatic sources say.
ReutersThe snub comes after Trump met Putin in Alaska[/caption]
AFPPeace-maker Donald Trump with Zelensky in the Oval Office[/caption]