Moscow listed seven demands for peace in Ukraine

2023-05-27 17:46:00

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin among the seven demands enumerated the cessation of hostilities by Ukrainian forces and the supply of Western weapons. According to the Russian diplomat, the fulfillment of the other five requirements is necessary for “achieving a general, just and lasting peace”. Ukraine should therefore return to a neutral position outside the blocs, i.e. renounce joining NATO and the EU, recognize “new territorial realitiesarising as a result of the right of peoples to self-determination” (that is, to recognize the annexation of their territory in Crimea and in the east and south of the country by Russia – note by ČTK), to protect the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities, to establish Russian as the state language and to observe basic human rights, including freedom religious belief.

The last demand probably means that the Ukrainian state should stop opposing the Orthodox Church, which until recently was subject to the Moscow Patriarchate. In addition, the Orthodox Church connected to the Patriarchate of Constantinople also operates in Ukraine.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said that Moscow does not oppose Ukraine’s EU membership. Earlier, there was not even a demand to make Russian the state language,” poznamenal list Kommersant.

The seven Russian demands “confirm the legal and factual incompetence of the Russian leadership,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said on Twitter and responded by listing the Ukrainians’ conditions. These include the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, the definitive recognition of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the sovereignty of the post-Soviet republics, the extradition of war criminals and war builders, the creation of a demilitarized buffer zone on Russian territory, a reduction in the number of offensive weapons, the holding of an international conference that would organize control over Russia’s nuclear arsenal, the legal anchoring of reparations, including the voluntary surrender of Russian property seized in third countries in favor of Ukraine.

Peace talks with Russia, which began shortly after the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine last February, were ended by Ukraine after the spring withdrawal of Russian troops from Kiev, which also meant the disclosure of war crimes in the newly liberated cities and villages. Kiev has vowed not to negotiate with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is at its head. It was on his orders that Russian troops invaded the neighboring country, unleashing the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Several drones attempted to attack the Ilsk refinery in the Krasnodar region of southern European Russia overnight. All were neutralized and caused no damage to one of the region’s largest oil refineries, Russian media reported, citing regional authorities. According to the Interfax agency, the attack took place about an hour after midnight in Central Europe.

News of the attack first appeared on social media. They claimed that part of the drone debris fell on the premises of the company, the BBC noted on its Russian-language website.

The same refinery was affected by a fire on May 4. At the time, the state agency TASS, citing an unnamed source, wrote that the fire was caused by a drone strike. The authorities did not comment on this version. The following day, the same agency wrote about another drone attack that, according to the Kommersant newspaper, damaged one of the plant’s equipment.

“The old moron Senator Lindsey Graham said that the US has never invested money better than killing Russians. He is wrong to say that. In his beloved America, not only are ordinary people routinely murdered, but dirty money is also spent on the murders of senators.” responded to the words of the American politician in Kyiv, former Russian president, now deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.

“Let him remember the sad fate of Robert Kennedy, Huey Long, Clementa Carlos Pinckney, John Milton Elliott, Wayne Owens and other American politicians,” listed on Telegram both state and federal politicians assassinated over the centuries.

In a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Graham stated: “Money best spent.” In the videos circulating on social networks, it is cut right after his sentence “…and now the Russians are dying.” It is impossible to know whether he actually said it in this connection.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, which is fighting alongside the Russian military in Ukraine, claims that Russian state media are deliberately ignoring and underreporting him at the behest of senior Kremlin officials. “I’m pretty sure they banned it,” said Prigozhin, saying that the Russian state media would take revenge for such a procedure and that the people would punish them for it.

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