Ukraine Doesn’t Want To Hold Normal Elections, Will Drag Out Ceasefire Talks: Vladimir Putin On Zelensky. Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the Kyiv government of trying to stay in power by warring with Moscow. He said Ukraine’s demand for the withdrawal of Russian forces is designed to perpetuate the conflict. Putin highlighted that if negotiations are linked to the withdrawal of Russian troops, then it will never happen.
This comes a week after the Kremlin said Moscow would only enter a ceasefire and begin peace talks if Ukraine gave up four of its regions and abandoned its NATO membership bid. In a televised address to Russian diplomats in Moscow, Putin said Ukraine must completely withdraw its forces from the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
He added that Russia will implement a ceasefire and begin peace talks as soon as Kyiv withdraws its troops and officially renounces plans to join NATO. However Mykhailo Podolyak, the advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Putin’s conditions as a sham. He said Ukrainians must stop taking Russia’s proposals seriously.
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Ukraine President Zelensky Doesn’t Want to Give Up Power – Vladimir Putin
Putin told a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam that the Kyiv regime – headed by President Zelensky – doesn’t want to give up power. He alleged that the Ukrainian president has no intention of holding normal elections and will forever drag out the ceasefire talks.
The Russian president asserted that Kyiv’s orders to achieve a victory on the battlefield at all costs mean Ukraine will suffer, adding that Ukraine is trying to project Kharkov as a strategic operation, but its a tactical. Putin said Russia has always been willing to negotiate but Ukraine and its Western allies sabotaged the Minsk process and the Istanbul talks.
Ukraine was to hold election in late March but has been postponed as the country is in the midst of a war and under martial law.
