Putin addresses top Foreign Ministry officials: As it happened

Russia’s principal position is also that Ukraine must proclaim neutral status, not seek to acquire nuclear weapons, as well as be demilitarized and denazified, Putin has said, adding that those conditions were pre-agreed upon in 2022. Kiev must also guarantee the rights and freedoms of the country’s Russian-speaking population.

All the aforementioned conditions should be fundamentally recognized at the international level, followed by the removal of Western sanctions against Russia, he said.

If the West and Ukraine “will be politically and morally responsible for further bloodshed,” if they reject Moscow's terms, Putin has insisted. “Obviously, the realities on the ground, on the frontline, will continue to change not in favor of the Kiev regime, and the conditions for starting negotiations will be different,” he added, noting that Moscow is not seeking a temporary ceasefire, but rather a lasting peace.

Russia is ready for talks with Ukraine on the condition that Kiev completely withdraws its troops from the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, Putin said. “As soon as Kiev declares that it is ready for such a decision and begins a real withdrawal of troops... and also officially announces that it has abandoned plans to join NATO, our side will immediately... receive an order to cease fire and begin negotiations.”

The Swiss-hosted Ukraine ‘peace confrence’ scheduled for June 15 and 16 is nothing more than a “trick” seeking to give the current government in Kiev some legitimacy, Putin has claimed. Zelensky’s presidential term expired last month, despite his cancellation of this year’s election.

Early in the Ukraine conflict, Moscow was in principle ready to let Kiev retain sovereignty over Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions – now parts of Russia – on condition that it guaranteed the security of a land connection to the Crimean Peninsula, Putin has said.

Later, however, the residents of those two regions expressed the desire to join Russia, which was realized through referendums in the fall of 2022, he added.

Before the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, Russia proposed to Kiev to settle the crisis by completely withdrawing Ukrainian troops from Donbass, Putin has said. This idea was rejected out of hand, despite having the potential to resolve the tensions, he added.

Western nations have for years been seeking to turn Ukraine into an anti-Russian foothold, lobbying politicians in Kiev and fostering neo-Nazi ideology, Putin has claimed. Those efforts were for a long time checked by the population in southeast Ukraine, which historically enjoyed close ties with Russia, he added. Faced with this resistance, Western nations organized a coup in Kiev, with the new authorities attempting to crack down on this region, the president said.

The West talks about “decolonizing” Russia but is actually seeking to partition it along ethnic lines, after conducting six waves of NATO expansion close to its borders, Putin has stated.

The Ukraine crisis is not a conflict between the two culturally tight-knit nations, but rather the result of “aggressive” and “reckless” Western policies that started long before the hostilities erupted in 2022, Putin has argued.

The Western decision to freeze Russian assets is “theft” and will not go unpunished, Putin has vowed. He further claimed that the move to transfer Russian money to Ukraine will shatter the global financial system and will tarnish the West’s image among international investors.