Russia will stop 'in a moment' if Ukraine meets terms: Kremlin
The outlining of Russia's demands came as delegations from Russia and Ukraine prepared to meet on Monday for a third round of talks aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.
It began soon after Putin recognized two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since 2014, as independent - an action denounced as "illegal" by the West.
Dmitry Peskov said, "This is not us seizing Lugansk and Donetsk from Ukraine. Donetsk and Lugansk don’t want to be part of Ukraine."
Russia had been forced into taking decisive actions to force the demilitarization of Ukraine, he said, rather than just recognizing the independence of the breakaway regions.
This was in order to protect the 3 million Russian-speaking population in these republics, who he said were being threatened by 100,000 Ukrainian troops.
"We couldn’t just recognize them. What were we going to do with the 100,000 army that was standing at the border of Donetsk and Lugansk that could attack at any moment. They were being brought US and British weapons all the time," he said.
Peskov said the situation in Ukraine had posed a much greater threat to Russia’s security than it had in 2014, when Russia had also amassed 150,000 troops at its border with Ukraine, prompting fears of a Russian invasion, but had limited its action to the annexation of Crimea.
"Since then the situation has worsened for us. In 2014, they began supplying weapons to Ukraine and preparing the army for NATO, bringing it in line with NATO standards," he said.
"In the end what tipped the balance was the lives of these 3 million people in Donbass. We understood they would be attacked."
Peskov said Russia had also had to act in the face of the threat it perceived from NATO, saying it was "only a matter of time" before the alliance placed missiles in Ukraine as it had in Poland and Romania.
"We just understood we could not put up with this any more. We had to act," he said.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2346848/russia-will-stop-in-a-moment-if-ukraine-meets-terms-kremlin
