Putin says he is ready for a ceasefire ‘tomorrow’ if Ukraine pulls out of four regions seized by Russian forces and abandons plans to join NATO – after warning the world has reached ‘point of no return’

Vladimir Putin has announced he will call a ceasefire and immediately enter peace talks if Ukraine is willing to pull back its troops from four regions occupied by Russian forces and give up plans to make a NATO membership bid. 

‘We will (call a ceasefire) immediately,’ Putin said in a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry this morning, adding his proposal is aimed at a ‘final resolution’ of the conflict and that the Kremlin is ‘ready to start negotiations without delay’.

But the declaration, which comes on the eve of a two-day conference in Switzerland dedicated to building a ‘road map’ to peace in Ukraine, is seen as a non-starter in Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has routinely refused to consider a deal that would see Ukrainian land surrendered to Moscow. 

His aide Mykhailo Podolyak said of Putin’s peace proposal: ‘It’s all a complete sham. Therefore – once again – get rid of illusions and stop taking seriously the ”proposals of Russia” that are offensive to common sense.’

But Putin’s troops currently control a significant amount of Donetsk and Luhansk, and in September 2022 Moscow unilaterally declared it had annexed those two regions well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Putin’s forces are also making gains across the border in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv – though his troops previously abandoned large swathes of territory in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia following Ukrainian counterattacks.

In the same speech this morning, the Russian president engaged in yet more sabre-rattling, claiming Western leaders are pushing him towards ‘the point of no return’ over a nuclear World War Three.

‘We have come unacceptably close to the point of no return… Calls to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, which possesses the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons demonstrate the extreme recklessness of Western politicians,’ Putin declared.

‘They either do not understand the scale of the threat they are creating – or are simply obsessed with their own sense of impunity and exceptionalism.

‘Both can lead to tragedy,’ he concluded sternly. 

Putin’s unexpected remarks today came as leaders of the G7 leaders met in Italy and as Switzerland prepared to host scores of world leaders for its peace conference in Lucerne. 

The Kremlin chief said he did not want to ‘freeze’ the conflict and instead was pushing for a final resolution that would see an end to hostilities. 

Broader demands for peace that the Russian leader listed included Ukraine’s non-nuclear status, restrictions on its military force and protecting the interests of the Russian-speaking population in the country.

‘We’re urging to turn this tragic page of history and to begin restoring, step-by-step, restore the unity between Russia and Ukraine and in Europe in general,’ he said in remarks representing a rare occasion in which he clearly laid out his conditions for the end of the war. 

The Kremlin has previously said that Kyiv should recognise its territorial gains and drop its bid to join NATO, but Putin has rarely broached the topic himself. 

Russia does not fully control either of the four regions it illegally annexed in 2022, but Putin said Kyiv must withdraw from them entirely if it wants peace.

In Zaporizhzhia in the south-east, Russia still does not control the region’s namesake administrative capital of 700,000 people, and in the neighbouring Kherson region, Moscow withdrew from Kherson’s biggest city and capital of the same name in November 2022.

The developments come just one day after the Kremlin vowed an ‘extremely painful’ retaliation as the Group of Seven (G7) countries finalised a ‘cynical and criminal’ deal to raise some $50billion for Ukraine – partially from seized Russian assets. 

Ukraine has been eager for fresh assistance to hold the line against Vladimir Putin’s troops, who since the war entered its third year in February have made significant gains on the battlefield.

But this week’s G7 summit in Italy proved particularly fruitful for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with the group’s leaders agreeing to pull together a ‘historic’ loan worth $50billion that is backed by the interest earned on Russian assets frozen in the EU and US.

Zelensky and US President Joe Biden also sent what they described as a message of unified opposition to the Russian President, inking a key security agreement that will see Washington provide ten years of military and financial support for Kyiv.

‘He cannot wait us out, he cannot divide us,’ Biden declared, while Zelensky said the agreement demonstrated the ‘credibility of American support for our Ukrainian independence.’

The details of the plan to fund Ukraine are yet to be revealed, with an official statement from the G7 expected later today. 

But diplomats confirmed that the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States had all reached an agreement to offer a loan to Kyiv.

The highly anticipated agreement will leverage interest and income from the more than $260billion in frozen Russian assets, largely held in Europe, to secure a $50billion loan from the US, along with additional loans from other partners.

The first disbursements will be made this year, a US official speaking on condition of anonymity said yesterday, adding that it will take time for Ukraine to use all the money.

European officials have resisted confiscating the assets entirely and simply handing them over to Ukraine, citing legal and financial stability concerns. 

But officials say those assets are generating roughly $3billion in interest every year, which can be used to secure the loan. 

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was enraged by the news, describing the plan as ‘criminal and cynical’ in comments to the Russian press yesterday.

She also vowed the Kremlin would take ‘extremely painful’ retaliation, considering a whole arsenal of retaliatory political and economic measures, according to the TASS news service. 

The Ukraine-US security pact meanwhile does not offer Ukraine any new money but includes a commitment by the White House to work with Congress on a source of sustainable funding for the future. 

Text of the agreement released by the White House also describes how Washington will collaborate with its Western allies and other partners to make sure Ukraine has the military, intelligence and other means necessary to defend itself and deter Russian aggression.

But either side can terminate the agreement in writing with six months’ notice, which means a future US president – including Donald Trump if elected in November – could cancel the arrangement.

Trump has been sceptical of providing additional military aid to Ukraine, at one point criticising the ‘endless flow of American treasure’ to Kyiv.

More recently, though, he has expressed openness to lending money instead and has said Ukraine’s independence is important to the United States. 

Besides the security deal with the US, the leaders of Ukraine and Japan also sealed a 10-year agreement under which Japan will provide defence and humanitarian aid, reconstruction and technical and financial support.

Zelensky and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio signed the accord on the sidelines of the G7 summit yesterday, with the Ukrainian President later commenting that Tokyo would provide $4.5billion for Ukraine this year. 

Japan will support Ukraine with the provision of non-lethal equipment and goods, cooperate in the field of intelligence and provide support in reconstruction and recovery, as well as providing assistance in the medical and health fields, among others.

‘For Japan, this type of agreement and this level of support is a breakthrough,’ Zelensky wrote on the social media platform X. ‘We see this and thank Japan for its unwavering solidarity with our country and people.’

A text of the deal released by the Japanese Embassy in Italy said Japan has committed and provided more than $12billion in financial, humanitarian and other assistance since March 2022.

The momentous funding deal and security agreements agreed in Italy this week came just days after several Western partners announced a new battery of sanctions to crack down further on Russia’s ability to wage war in Ukraine.

Britain said the new sanctions package would target entities based in China, Israel, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, as well as the Russian energy industry.

The sanctions announced at the start of Thursday’s G7 summit apply to 50 companies and individuals involved in supplying munitions, machine tools, microelectronics, and logistics to the Russian military, together with ships transporting military goods from North Korea to Russia.

Britain also said it was targeting the ‘shadow fleet’ of ships used to circumvent G7 sanctions on the Russian oil and natural gas industry. 

The UK Foreign Office said this is particularly important because taxes on oil production accounted for 31 per cent of the Russian government’s revenue last year.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement that the UK ‘will always stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in its fight for freedom’.

Sunak added that Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘must lose, and cutting off his ability to fund a prolonged conflict is absolutely vital’.

Zelensky will leave Italy and head for Switzerland following the conclusion of the G7 meeting today in anticipation of this weekend’s much heralded Ukraine peace summit.

Around 90 states and organisations have confirmed their participation in the two-day conference which aims to create a pathway to peace in Ukraine. 

Zelensky will use the talks to build support for Ukraine’s position on three key themes surrounding Russia’s February 2022 invasion: food security, nuclear safety and the release of all prisoners and deportees.

The Ukrainian president pushed for the talks, organised by Bern at Ukraine’s behest, to include a wide variety of countries, with Swiss delegates inviting some 160 countries. 

But Russian officials have repeatedly characterised the conference as pointless after it was announced in January, arguing that a conference on peace in Ukraine cannot take place without Moscow’s presence. 

Switzerland says the talks should ‘define a roadmap’ on how to involve Russia and Ukraine in future, and Ukraine has said Russian representatives could be invited ‘in future, on Kyiv’s terms’.

China meanwhile, which has close ties with the Kremlin, said it will boycott the event, describing the attendance of both warring sides as a prerequisite for any substantive peace conference.

Beijing and Moscow proclaimed a ‘no limits’ partnership just days before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Russia’s smaller neighbour in February 2022.

China says it is neutral in the conflict and has not supplied Russia with weapons or ammunition for use in Ukraine, but Western intelligence sources believe it has provided a variety of dual use technology that can be used to wage war. 

Beijing has also been lobbying countries to back a ‘six point peace deal’ it is sponsoring – a move that is suspected to have undermined the Switzerland conference and encouraged many developing nations not to attend. 

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said last week that 45 nations have expressed support for Beijing’s peace proposal, which would see Russia and Ukraine sit down for renewed talks at a neutral location. 

But Zelensky and Western partners suspect China’s peace plan would see Ukraine forced to cede some of its territory to the Russian occupiers in order to end the war.