Kiev considers Moscow's new peace proposal as an ultimatum, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said in an interview with the Italian TV channel Sky TG24.
"These statements are an ultimatum. There is nothing else in them but ultimatums, which have been before," he said in response to a request for a comment on Russian President Vladimir Putin's new proposal. Zelensky argued that accepting Moscow’s was tantamount to ceding territories.
In his opinion, the proposal was equivalent to freezing the conflict, but "there will be no frozen conflict."
Earlier, Putin said at a meeting with the leadership of the Foreign Ministry that Russia was making a new peace proposal for settling the conflict in Ukraine. It envisaged recognition of the status of Crimea, DPR, LPR and Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as Russian territories, consolidation of Ukraine's non-aligned and nuclear-free status, its demilitarization and denazification, and the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions. Before the negotiations can begin Ukraine should withdraw its forces from the DPR, LPR and Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
Putin also pointed out that "the presidential term of the previously elected head of Ukraine has expired along with his legitimacy, which cannot be restored by any tricks."
He recalled that Ukrainian legislation provided for the possibility of extending the powers of the Verkhovna Rada, but not of the country's president, in case martial law was imposed.
