Ukraine's president suggested Vladimir Putin was set on global domination as he compared him to Adolf Hitler after the warlord offered an unreasonable "ultimatum" in exchange for a cease-fire.
Putin yesterday promised to "immediately" order a cease-fire across Ukraine and start negotiating on the proviso that Kyiv withdraw troops from each of the four regions the Kremlin annexed in 2022. Another requirement was for Kyiv to renounce on its plans to join its Western allies in NATO.
Volodymyr Zelensky rejected what he called an ultimatum by Putin to surrender more territory. It comes as scores of world leaders - but not Moscow - were invited to Switzerland to map our first steps towards peace in Ukraine.
It also coincided with a meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations in Italy and after the U.S. and Ukraine this week signed a 10-year security agreement that Russian officials, including Putin, denounced as "null and void."
Zelensky, who is also in Italy for the G7 meeting, said the proposal was not new and was in the form of an "ultimatum," comparing it to actions by Adolf Hitler in seizing territory that led to World War II. It's unsure which promises Zelensky was referring to, but in 1939, Nazi Germany issued a 16-point list of demands to Poland, which was read out as a peace proposal on the radio. Britain and France declared war on Poland two days after the Nazis invaded.
"What Putin demands is to give them a part of our territories, those occupied and not occupied, talking about several regions of our country," Zelensky said.
Speaking to Sky Italia, he said: "[The offer is] exactly the kind of things that Hitler would say. He would say 'Give me a part of the Czech Republic and the war will end', but he was just lying because after that came Poland; 'give me a part of Poland', and then came the occupation of the whole of Europe... This is what Nazism is about and we can't trust Putin because he's on the very same path."
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry called Putin's plan "manipulative," "absurd" and designed to "mislead the international community, undermine diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving a just peace, and split the unity of the world majority around the goals and principles of the U.N. Charter."
Besides seeking to join NATO, Ukraine wants Russian forces out of its territory, including the Crimean Peninsula that was illegally annexed in 2014; the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity; and that Russia be held accountable for war crimes and for Moscow to pay reparations to Kyiv.
Putin blasted the Switzerland conference as "just another ploy to divert everyone's attention, reverse the cause and effect of the Ukrainian crisis (and) set the discussion on the wrong track." His demands came in a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry and was aimed at what he called a "final resolution" of the conflict rather than "freezing it," and stressed the Kremlin is "ready to start negotiations without delay."
Broader demands for peace that Putin listed included Ukraine's recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, keeping the country's non-nuclear status, restricting its military force and protecting the interests of the Russian-speaking population. All of these should be part of "fundamental international agreements," and all Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted, Putin said.
"We're urging to turn this tragic page of history and to begin restoring, step-by-step, the unity between Russia and Ukraine and in Europe in general," he said.
Putin's remarks, made to a group of sombre Foreign Ministry officials and some senior lawmakers, represented a rare occasion in which he clearly laid out his conditions for ending the war in Ukraine, but it didn't include any new demands. The Kremlin has said before that Kyiv should recognize its territorial gains and drop its bid to join NATO.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. After Ukrainian forces thwarted a Russian drive to the capital, much of the fighting has focused in the south and east, where Moscow illegally annexed four regions, although it doesn't fully control any of them.
Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on social media there was nothing new from Putin and that the Russian leader "voiced only the `standard aggressor's set,' which has been heard many times already."
"There is no novelty in this, no real peace proposals and no desire to end the war. But there is a desire not to pay for this war and to continue it in new formats. It's all a complete sham," Podolyak wrote on X.