Ukraine must withdraw from Donbas for ceasefire, Kremlin says
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the Kremlin's condition for halting hostilities is Ukraine's complete withdrawal of its armed forces beyond Donbas.
Source: Russian state-owned media Interfax; TASS, a Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency
Details: Peskov said that the "responsible" decision by Ukraine on Donbas, mentioned a day earlier by Yuri Ushakov, aide to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, meant a full pull-out of Ukraine's forces beyond Donbas.
Quote: "Of course. It is the withdrawal of the regime's armed forces from Donbas beyond the administrative borders."
More details: Peskov was also asked whether this applied only to Donbas or to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
Quote: "Here I have already said that we will not comment in full and will not go into a public discussion of individual provisions.
Russia is thinking about ending the military conflict in the context of achieving its goals."
Background:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his US counterpart Trump met in the United States on 28 December. After that, the presidents held a video conference with European leaders.
- At a press conference following their meeting, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump said that they were unable to resolve the issue of Donbas during their talks.
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said that the "20-point plan [the peace plan – ed.] – 90% agreed, the US-Ukraine security guarantees – 100% agreed, US-Europe-Ukraine security guarantees – almost agreed, military dimension [of these guarantees – ed.] – 100% agreed".
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