Ukraine Must Remain Neutral for There to be Peace: Putin

Neutrality for Kyiv is a key prerequisite for ending the conflict with Moscow permanently, Putin told the press at the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.

“If there’s no neutrality, it’s hard to imagine any kind of good-neighborly relations between Russia and Ukraine,” the president said, according to RT.

Putin explained that without neutral status, “Ukraine will constantly be used as a tool in foreign hands, to the detriment of the interests of the Russian Federation.” This would mean there is no basis for normalizing relations, a scenario Moscow wishes to avoid, he added.

Putin said Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region was a stark example of a senseless move imposed on Kyiv by its Western sponsors, with the Ukrainian people now paying a heavy price as their army suffers “colossal” losses.

Previous temporary solutions to curb the conflict, namely the 2014-2015 Minsk Agreements, were used by the West to buy “time to arm the Ukrainian army,” Putin stated at a press conference following the BRICS Summit in Kazan last month.