In peace agreement to end the war, Russia demands formal recognition of Crimea and four Ukrainian regions as its territory

Russia, in a peace agreement to end the war, demands that recognition of Crimea and four Ukrainian regions as Russian territory be formally included.

Additionally, it demands recognition of territories partially controlled by the Russian army, Ukraine’s rejection of NATO membership, “demilitarization and denazification,” the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions, withdrawal of legal claims, return of frozen Russian assets in the West, and the “protection of Russian-speaking people’s rights in Ukraine.”

This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview with the Hungarian outlet Magyar Nemzet.

According to him, a lasting settlement is impossible without “eliminating the root causes of the conflict.”

“First and foremost, it is necessary to remove security threats associated with NATO’s expansion and Ukraine’s inclusion in the Alliance, which affect Russia. It is equally important to ensure the observance of human rights in the territories still controlled by the Kyiv regime, because since 2014, everything related to Russia, Russians, and Russian-speaking people has been destroyed there — the Russian language, culture, traditions, canonical Orthodoxy, and Russian-language media,” Lavrov said.

He also emphasized the need for international legal recognition of the “new territorial realities”

“…formed as a result of the incorporation into Russia of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, and the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. On the agenda are the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, lifting of anti-Russian sanctions, withdrawal of lawsuits against Russia, and return of illegally frozen Russian assets in the West,” the Russian Foreign Minister added.

“All these provisions must be enshrined in a legally binding peace agreement. Ukraine must return to the foundations of its statehood and adhere to the spirit and letter of the documents upon which its legitimacy is based. Let me remind you that Ukraine declared a neutral, non-bloc, and non-nuclear status in the Declaration of State Sovereignty of 1990. In August 1991, the Supreme Council adopted the law on the declaration of Ukraine’s independence, which confirmed the inviolability of the declaration’s provisions. The Declaration of Independence is included in the preamble of Ukraine’s current Constitution,” Lavrov stated.

Earlier, it was reported that the Kremlin expressed readiness to cease hostilities after the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow has incorporated into its constitution as part of Russia.