Italian and German leaders have strongly rejected President Vladimir Putin's proposed cease-fire terms to stop the war in Ukraine. Numerous countries gathered at a two-day summit in Switzerland to discuss ending the conflict.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the Russian president's plan “propaganda,” effectively implying that Ukraine “must withdraw from Ukraine.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed it as a “dictatorship peace.”
The draft declaration released at the summit reaffirms Ukraine's territorial integrity and unequivocally rejects any nuclear threat to the country.
Putin insisted Friday that he would agree to a ceasefire if Ukraine withdrew its troops from four regions that Russia says it partially occupied and annexed.
“There will be no compromise on independence, sovereignty or territorial integrity,” Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told the BBC at the Swiss summit.
Putin announced his term ahead of a two-day peace summit in Ukraine to discuss basic principles for ending the war.
More than 90 countries and global organizations will attend this event. This rally is the largest gathering in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion.
However, Russia was not invited, and Russia's main ally, China, did not attend, so expectations of significant progress at this stage are low.
Regarding Putin's proposal, Ms. Meloni said, “Telling Ukraine that it has to secede from Ukraine doesn't seem very effective to me as a negotiating offer.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accused the Russian president of “telling lies about his willingness to negotiate.”
He added that countries helping Russia with weapons supplies are “on the wrong side of history.”
