Russia posed on Monday as a “imperative” condition to all peace with Ukraine the international recognition of its annexation of Crimea and four other regions, Donald Trump having said he believed Volodomyr Zelensky ready to give up this peninsula, despite the denials of the Ukrainian president.
• Read also: Ukrainian forces “continue their operations” in the Russian region of Koursk, known as Zelensky
No directing direct has so far been officially announced between Moscow and Kyïv, but this hypothesis is increasingly mentioned, three years after the start of the Russian offensive which led to the death of several tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
“Our position for settlement (conflict) is well known,” Russian diplomacy chief Sergei Lavrov told Brazilian media on Monday.
“The international recognition of the membership of Crimea, of Sébastopol (the Grand Port of this peninsula, note), of the People’s Republic of Donetsk, the People’s Republic of Lougansk, the region of Kherson and that of Zaporijia to Russia is imperative,” he added, according to a transcription published on the website of his ministry.
Tensions around Crimea
Russia annexed the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, which the international community, including the United States, has never recognized until then.
In September 2022, a few months after the triggering of her large -scale assault, she also claimed the annexation of these four other Ukrainian regions which she partially occupies, those of Donetsk, Lougansk, Kherson and Zaporijia.
Russia maintains almost quasi-to be ready for discussions, even if its prerequisites are deemed unacceptable by Kyïv and the Westerners.
The Kremlin repeated on Monday being ready to “start a negotiation process with Ukraine with no prerequisite to achieve a peaceful outcome”.
Although Kyïv has so far always excluded the idea of abandoning Crimea, the American president estimated on Sunday that the position of Volodymyr Zelensky on this subject could change.
“I think yes. Crimea was 12 years ago, “replied Donald Trump, questioned by journalists about the possibility that the Ukrainian Head of state could” abandon “this territory.
Ukraine’s renunciation of Crimea is regularly presented by Washington as a condition for a peace plan with Moscow. This also includes, according to media, a frost line freezing in the American administration’s projects.
-Russia occupies about 20% of the Ukrainian territory, including Crimea.
“Crucial” week
The return to Donald Trump’s White House in January marked a turning point in the conflict.
The United States, until then the first support of Ukraine, want to turn the page as quickly as possible, fears Kyïv, to accept very favorable provisions in Moscow.
The American president also stretched his hand to Vladimir Putin while having very harsh words for Volodomyr Zelensky and by taking up the elements of language of the Kremlin on the origins of the conflict.
However, he has expressed doubts in recent days on the will of the Russian Head of State to end the fighting and spoke in-head with his Ukrainian counterpart on the sidelines of the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday at the Vatican.
Referring to Vladimir Putin, the billionaire president insisted on Sunday: “I want him to stop shooting. Sit and sign the agreement ”.
His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, judged on Sunday that progress could be quickly made, saying that this week promised to be “crucial”.
Motel Moscow-Pyongyang
The strikes also continue in Ukraine.
During the night of Sunday to Monday, three people were killed in a Russian attack on a village in the Donetsk region in the East, according to the services of the regional prosecutor.
On Saturday, Russia said that it has fully resumed Ukrainian forces its border region of Koursk, where Kyïv launched an offensive in August 2024, which the Ukrainian army and Volodymyr Zelensky in turn denied, the head of state ensuring Sunday that the operations “continued” in the area.
North Korea for the first time recognized on Monday having sent troops to Russia and that they had helped Moscow to take up the areas of the Koursk region from the Ukrainians from which they had taken hold.
“Those who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the homeland,” said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, quoted by the KCNA news agency. He added that a monument commemorating the “exploits of the battle” would soon be erected in the capital Pyongyang.
