The United States, Ukraine and NATO have dismissed conditions for a Ukraine cease-fire set Friday by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said he would halt his offensive in Ukraine provided Kyiv withdraws from territories claimed by Moscow and abandons its bid to join NATO.
"Putin has occupied, illegally occupied, sovereign Ukrainian territory. He is not in any position to dictate to Ukraine what they must do to bring about peace," Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at the end of a NATO meeting in Brussels.
"He could end this today, if he chose to do that, and we call upon him to do that, and to leave Ukrainian sovereign territory.”
On the eve of a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland, Putin said Moscow would halt its offensive only if Kyiv effectively surrendered by pulling its troops out of the country’s east and south. He also demanded that Kyiv drop its bid for NATO membership and recognize Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Putin’s cease-fire offer is an ultimatum which cannot be trusted.
Speaking to Italy's SkyTG24 news channel on the sidelines of the G7 summit, Zelenskyy said he didn’t think Putin would stop his military advances even if his cease-fire demands were met.
"These are ultimatum messages that are no different from messages from the past," Zelenskyy said through an interpreter, comparing Putin’s aspirations to Adolf Hitler's expansionist drive before the outbreak of World War II.
"It is the same thing that Hitler used to do ... This is why we should not trust these messages.”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called Putin’s conditions “absurd.”
“He is offering for Ukraine to sign away its geopolitical sovereignty," Podolyak told Reuters.
NATO defense ministers on Friday approved a new plan for reliable long-term security aid and military training for Ukraine. The plan comes in response to delays on Western deliveries following Washington’s months-long debate in Congress over support for Kyiv.
NATO allies have said the delays contributed to Russian advances on the battlefield in recent months.
The new plan complements efforts of the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group, or UDCG, which brings together about 50 nations to coordinate military aid for Kyiv.
Speaking at a press conference following the UDCG meeting at NATO on Thursday, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown said the Ukrainians have been able to “hold the defensive lines” and that “the way the Russians have lost personnel, but also lost platforms, is pretty traumatic.”
Switzerland is set to host a peace summit on Ukraine this weekend that will be attended by at least 90 countries and organizations — but not Moscow.
The summit coincides with a meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations concluding Friday in Italy.
The G7 leaders agreed Thursday on an outline of a deal to provide $50 billion to Ukraine using interest from Russian sovereign assets that were frozen after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that the agreement was “another reminder to Putin that we’re not backing down.”
Ukraine also signed a bilateral 10-year security agreement with the U.S. on the sidelines of the G7 meeting.
Russian officials, including Putin, denounced the agreement as “null and void.”
Fierce fighting continues
Ukraine said Friday that Russian forces targeted the Pokrovsk front in the eastern Donetsk region, where overnight strikes wounded at least six people.
"The Pokrovsk front ... is the most intense in terms of enemy attacks," the Ukrainian military said in a briefing.
Kyiv and Moscow exchanged dozens of drone and missile attacks overnight. Ukrainian attacks damaged a fuel reservoir site in a Russian border region.
Kyiv has been targeting Russian energy facilities while Moscow is conducting retaliatory attacks.
Russia said it had downed 87 Ukrainian drones, of which 70 had targeted the southern Rostov region that houses the headquarters of its military operation against Ukraine.
Kyiv said Ukrainian air defense systems had downed 24 out of 31 Russian drones and missiles fired overnight.
Three people were wounded in a drone attack in the eastern Sumy region and several homes were damaged in the neighboring Kharkiv region.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
