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Agence France-Presse

Reuters

The ceasefire offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin is an ultimatum which cannot be trusted, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, comparing the Russian leader to German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler
Putin said in a speech earlier in the day that Russia would end the war in Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to drop its Nato ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow.
Zelensky rejected Putin’s demands.
“These messages are messages of ultimatum … it’s the same thing Hitler did,” said Zelensky, according to an Italian live translation of an interview on Sky TG24 television. “Nazism has already arrived and now has this face of Putin.”
“He will not stop”, Zelensky said about Putin, making a parallel with Hitler’s expansionist drive before the outbreak of World War II.
“This is why we should not trust these messages,” Zelensky added.

“The conditions are very simple,” Putin said, listing the full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire territory of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in eastern and southern Ukraine among his demands.
“As soon as Kyiv says it is ready to do this and begins really withdrawing troops and officially renounces plans to join Nato, we will immediately, literally that very minute, cease fire and begin talks,” Putin said.
“I repeat, we will do this immediately. Naturally, we will simultaneously guarantee the unhindered and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian units and formations.”
The United States and Nato on Friday also rejected Putin’s demands.
“He [Putin] could end this today, if he chose to do that, and we call upon him to do that, and to leave Ukrainian sovereign territory,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said at the end of a Nato meeting in Brussels.
“This is not a proposal made in good faith,” Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said.


The Russian leader also warned the stand-off between Moscow and the West was coming “unacceptably close to the point of no return” and boasted that Moscow “possesses the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.”
Putin has repeatedly invoked nuclear rhetoric throughout the conflict with Ukraine, which he casts as just one front in a wider “hybrid war” between Russia and the Nato military alliance.
He also blasted a Ukraine peace forum taking place in Switzerland this weekend as a “trick to distract everybody.”
Moscow was not invited to the conference, which will be attended by the heads of state and senior officials from around 90 countries and international organisations.
Putin on Friday also branded as “theft” the freezing of Russian assets abroad and warned it would “not go unpunished”.
Putin, speaking at a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials, said the way the West had treated Moscow showed that any country could fall victim to a similar Western asset freeze.
“Despite all the chicanery, theft will certainly remain theft. And it will not go unpunished”, Putin said.
“Now it is becoming obvious to all countries, companies [and] sovereign funds that their assets and reserves are far from safe in both the legal and economic sense of the word.




“Anyone could be next in line for expropriation by the US and the West.”
G7 leaders agreed on Thursday on a new US$50 billion loan for Ukraine using profits from frozen Russian assets, a move US President Joe Biden said showed Moscow “we’re not backing down”.
The G7 and the EU froze around US$325 billion of Russian central bank reserves, days after Moscow ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
On Friday, Putin said Western countries were trying to come up with “some kind of legal basis” to justify these acts.


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Russia

Ukraine war: Zelensky rejects Putin’s ‘Hitler’-like ‘ultimatum’ for truce, drop its Nato bid

Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Russia’s demands to withdraw from four regions of Ukraine on Friday, calling them ultimatums and comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler. Photo: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Friday. Photo: AP

G7 agrees deal to use US$50 billion from Russian assets for Ukraine, seeks to counter China

From left:French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and US President Joe Biden attend a round table meeting at the G7 summit in Borgo Egnazia, Italy on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the first day of the G7 summit in Savelletri, Italy on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

From left, EU Council President Charles Michel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen during the G7 summit in Savelletri, Italy on Thursday. Photo: dpa

Biden, left, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky are expected to sign a new long-term security accord at the G7 summit in Italy. Photo: Reuters

Biden, Zelensky sign security deal as Ukraine leader questions how long unity will last

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden sign the bilateral security agreement. Photo: AFP

Germany is one of the five countries that have promised an additional Patriot system for Ukraine. Photo: AFP

Russian soldiers in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP

Vladimir Putin says Russia doesn’t need nuclear weapons to win in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Ukraine war: US VP Kamala Harris to attend Swiss ‘peace summit’ as Joe Biden skips

Kamala Harris, US vice-president, will attend a peace summit on Ukraine in Switzerland on June 15. Photo: AFP

News

World

Russia & Central Asia

Putin on Friday said Russia would cease fire and enter peace talks if Kyiv dropped its Nato ambitions and withdrew troops from 4 Ukrainian regions


Putin on Friday said Russia would cease fire and enter peace talks if Ukraine dropped its Nato ambitions and withdrew forces from 4 Ukrainian regions.
