Russia Reads Out Ukraine Peace Talks Conditions Ahead Of Putin’s Alaska Meeting With Trump
By Yadnom Awu/ Asaba
Russia today released the basic condition for its peace deal with Ukraine ahead of its leader ‘s talks with American President Donald Trump.
In a statement released this morning, the Foreign Office in Moscow said that Ukraine must cede its authority and sovereignty over four of its regions that Russia currently has partial or full control of.
The condition is a rehash of the June 2024 statement of President Vladimir Viktor Putin, outlining his vision for a lasting peace deal with its smaller neighbour.
Putin had also said that Ukraine must never join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, operate a big military and or join the Western military alliance by the name of the Coalition of the Willing , being championed by both France and Britain.
The Russian Foreign Office release today came just hours before a virtual meeting between President Trump and leaders of the European Union, EU and Britain at the instance of the German government.
The virtual meeting, coordinated by Berlin, is being physically attended by President Wladimyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
The virtual meeting itself comes just 24 hours before the historic meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin in Alaska on Friday.
The Alaska meeting is the first in six years between the two world leaders.
It is to hold at an American .military base in the cold former Soviet territory.
The main agendum of the talks is the three year old war between Russia and Ukraine and the strategy to end it.
Trump had boasted in the course of his President campaign to end the war in just one day.
But some seven months into office, he has had difficulties doing so, and the upcoming meeting is the biggest single proof of the desire of Trump to end the conflict which is the biggest in Europe since the end of the World War 11.
The war began with Russia ‘s invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
The invasion, which it initially tagged a special.military operation, has cost tens of thousands of casualties on both sides with Iran, North Korea and China backing Moscow and America, the EU, Britain , Canada and Australia supporting Ukraine.