Mr Zelensky called Russia's peace proposal an "ultimatum"
“ The new Russian statements are ultimatums. They contain nothing more than ultimatums that already existed ,” Zelensky said in an interview with Italian television channel Sky TG24 in response to a request to comment on President Vladimir Putin’s new proposal.
According to Mr. Zelensky, accepting Russia’s initiative would mean making territorial concessions. “ This proposal means freezing the conflict, but there will be no frozen conflict ,” Mr. Zelensky stressed.
Earlier, President Putin said that the country would immediately cease fire and negotiate peace to end the conflict if Ukraine withdrew all troops from new Russian regions.
Russia is known to oppose Ukraine's claim to five regions, four of which have joined Russia amid the conflict between the two countries. People in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia voted to join Russia in late 2022, but hostilities continue to some extent in each region.
“ The entire territory of those regions was determined by the administrative borders at the time of their accession to Ukraine – August 1991 ,” Putin stressed.
" We will order a ceasefire and start negotiations the moment Kiev declares its readiness to make a decision and begin a real withdrawal of troops from those regions, and officially informs us that it no longer plans to join NATO ," President Putin pledged.
NATO has not agreed to long-term funding for Ukraine
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after a meeting of the bloc's defense chiefs in Brussels that NATO countries have yet to agree on long-term funding for military supplies to Ukraine and a fair distribution of the burden among the alliance countries.
“ There is no agreement yet, but I am working to reach it with the support of many member states ,” Mr. Stoltenberg said.
According to Mr. Stoltenberg, this move will ensure transparency and capability in the issue of arming Ukraine. At the same time, the Secretary General also signals to Russia about NATO's long-term will to support Kiev.
Earlier, the NATO Secretary General announced that the decision on mandatory funding of assistance to Ukraine in the amount of about 40 billion euros per year is expected to be adopted at the summit in Washington in early July.
On Russia's side, this country believes that providing weapons to Ukraine will hinder the resolution, as well as directly drag NATO countries into the conflict and this is an act of "playing with fire".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any cargo containing weapons to Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia. According to him, the United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict, not only by supplying weapons but also by training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries. The Kremlin said that the supply of weapons from the West to Ukraine does not contribute to the negotiations.
Source: https://congthuong.vn/ong-zelensky-goi-de-xuat-hoa-binh-cua-nga-la-toi-hau-thu-nato-chua-tai-tro-dai-han-cho-ukraine-326257.html
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