Putin Offers Ceasefire, Ukraine Isn't Having the 'Sham'

In a proposal slammed by Ukraine as "absurd," Vladimir Putin offered Friday to order an immediate ceasefire if Ukraine withdraws all of its troops from parts of the country claimed by Russia and abandon plans to join NATO. He said that if Ukraine and Western countries turn down his offer, it "is their business, their political and moral responsibility for continuing the bloodshed."

• A "very simple" plan. The Russian leader described his plan as "very simple," the New York Times reports. He called for Ukraine to pull its troops out of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia. Moscow claims the regions are its territory but it does not fully control any of them. The capitals of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions are still under Ukrainian control. Putin said the West would also have to lift all sanctions before he would "immediately issue an order to cease fire and start negotiations."

• A "complete sham." Ukrainian officials, including presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, dismissed the offer as a "sham," the Guardian reports. "Of course, there is no novelty in this, no real peace proposals and no desire to end the war," Podolyak said. "It's all a complete sham."
• NATO chief rejects proposal. NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said Russia was proposing more aggression and more occupation. "This is a proposal that actually means that Russia should achieve their war aims, by expecting that Ukrainians should give up significantly more land than Russia has been able to occupy so far," he said.
• Russia isn't invited to peace conference. Putin's proposal came on the eve of a two-day peace conference in Switzerland that will focus on a peace plan Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented in 2022, the AP reports. Representatives from around 90 countries are expected to attend, including dozens of leaders. Russia was not invited.

• Zelensky says Putin can't be trusted. Zelensky said Friday that Putin's proposal was no different from past ultimatums and the aggression would not end even if his demands were granted, Reuters reports. "He will not stop," Zelensky said, comparing Putin to Hitler.
• Rewriting history? Weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russia pulled its troops back from the Kyiv area after meeting heavy resistance. In his remarks Friday, Putin claimed his forces had never intended to storm the capital, the AP reports. "In essence, it was nothing other than an operation to force the Ukrainian regime to peace," he said. "The troops were there to push the Ukrainian side to negotiate, to try and find an acceptable solution."

(More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)