Kremlin ready to negotiate?
Chancellor reacts to Putin’s Ukraine proposals
15.06.2024, 11:52 a.m.
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Shortly before the peace summit in Switzerland, Putin made a kind of offer to Kiev that some people would rather describe as a “dictated peace”: Russia was ready to negotiate – if Kiev gave up large parts of the country and NATO membership. Now Chancellor Scholz is also speaking out.
According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposals for starting peace talks were not discussed at the G7 summit. Everyone knows that these proposals are not serious, but have something to do with the conference in Switzerland, he told ZDF.
Putin had set conditions for peace talks with the Ukrainian government on Friday – although his proposals were more like a diktat. Russia would stop fighting if Ukraine gave up its aspirations to join NATO, he said. He also called for the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from the four regions that belong to Ukraine but have been declared annexed by Russia. The Kremlin had also previously made it clear time and again that the “Kiev regime”, as it calls the legitimately elected government, must be overthrown.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Putin’s conditions for stopping the offensive an “ultimatum” similar to the actions of Adolf Hitler in World War II. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Russia could not dictate terms for peace to Ukraine. “Putin has illegally occupied sovereign Ukrainian territory,” Austin said after a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels. Political scientist Carlo Masala spoke of a “dictated peace,” CDU defense expert Roderich Kiesewetter of a “pseudo” offer, which he called a “poisoned proposal.”
“A diplomatic plant”
Scholz also commented on the peace conference, for which representatives from more than 90 countries – excluding Russia – are meeting in Switzerland this Saturday. The Chancellor dampened expectations in advance. He told ZDF that the aim was to lay the foundations for a follow-up conference. “And then it will also be important that Russia is there,” said Scholz. “That’s why this is a diplomatic plant that we are now watering so that it can grow.”
Vice President Kamala Harris is coming to the conference from the USA. China and other countries that are close to the aggressor Russia are staying away from the meeting or are not sending high-ranking representatives. The delegations want to debate aspects such as grain exports from Ukraine, the security of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and humanitarian issues such as prisoner exchange in a luxury hotel high above Lake Lucerne near Lucerne.