Putin sets a condition for peace with Ukraine and threatens the West to respond to the freezing of Russian assets

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Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed today, Friday, that he will negotiate with Ukraine if it withdraws its forces from four regions claimed by Moscow and abandons its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), downplaying the importance of the peace summit in Switzerland, which his country did not invite.

Putin said in a meeting in front of Foreign Ministry cadres in Moscow: “As soon as Kiev actually begins withdrawing its forces and is informed of its abandonment of the project to join NATO, we will immediately issue an order for a ceasefire and begin negotiations.” These regions are Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhya.

In another context, Putin said that what Western countries are planning to provide Ukraine with loans using proceeds from Russian assets frozen abroad is “theft and will not go unpunished,” adding that the way the West is dealing with Moscow shows that any country could be exposed to a similar freeze of its assets. from the West.

The Turkish President said: “It has now become clear to all countries, companies, and sovereign funds that their assets and reserves are no longer safe in any way, whether from a legal or economic standpoint... Anyone may be the next to carry out confiscation operations by the United States and the West.”

Putin delivered this speech a day after the leaders of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries reached an initial agreement to provide loans worth $50 billion to Ukraine, supported by the proceeds of Russian sovereign assets, which have been frozen since Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, conditioning its end on Kiev’s “abandonment” of... Plans to join military entities, which prompted capitals, led by Washington, to impose severe economic sanctions on Moscow.