These are Putin’s demands for an end to the war in Ukraine – What he said to Erdogan

Ankara’s views on war in Ukraine “They are very careful and that seems to work,” the BBC reported. On Thursday afternoon, Russian President Vladimir Putin calls Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and revealed his demands for a peace agreement with Ukraine.

Half an hour after the call ended, BBC journalist John Simpson interviewed Erdogan’s top adviser, Ibrahim Kalin, who was among the few officials to hear the two leaders talk on the phone.

Russian demands fall into two categoriesreports the journalist of the British media.

The first four demands, according to Kalin, are not so difficult to accept from Ukraine. Top among them is Ukraine’s acceptance that it will be a neutral country and will not try to join NATO. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyhas already given in to this, the post notes.

There are other demands in this category, which mainly seem to have to do with the image of Russia. Ukraine should move on to one disarmament process to assure that it is not a threat to Russia. It must to protect the Russian language in Ukraine and also its issue de-Nazification.

“This is extremely offensive to Zelensky, who is a Jew and some of his relatives died in the Holocaust, but the Turkish side believes it will be easy for him to accept it. “It may be enough for Ukraine to condemn all forms of neo-Nazism and promise to fight them.”

The second category of requests

The difficulty arises in the second category of requests. In his phone call o Vladimir Putin said that face-to-face negotiations between him and Zelenski will be needed before an agreement can be reached on these points. Zelensky has already said he is ready to meet with the Russian president and negotiate closely with him.

Kalin was much less specific on these issues, simply saying that they include the Donbas regimein eastern Ukraine, and the Crimean regime. Although his advisor Erdogan The details are that Russia will deceive the Ukrainian government into granting territory to eastern Ukraine, which “will be deeply controversial,” the BBC reports.

The other hypothesis is that Moscow will demand that Ukraine formally accept that Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, belongs to Russia. And if that happens, it will be “a bitter pill” for Ukraine.