Russia Says It Will End Ukraine War on These Four Conditions

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said Russia will halt its military action in Ukraine if Kyiv meets four conditions. In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Peskov said Moscow could "end war immediately" if Ukraine agreed to sign a neutrality agreement that would bar it from entering NATO, recognized Crimea as Russian, recognized the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent, and ceased all military action. He told the news wire that negotiators on Ukraine's side "were told that all this can be stopped in a moment." "We really are finishing the demilitarization of Ukraine," Peskov told Reuters. "We will finish it. But the main thing is that Ukraine ceases its military action. They should stop their military action and then no one will shoot. "We have also spoken about how they should recognize that Crimea is Russian territory and that they need to recognize that Donetsk and Luhansk are independent states. And that's it. It will stop in a moment." The Kremlin spokesman added: "They should make amendments to the constitution according to which Ukraine would reject any aims to enter any bloc." Ukrainian officials have yet to respond to Peskov's demands. Peskov's interview reiterated President Vladimir Putin's line that the invasion launched on February 24 is a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine and detain leaders it claims are neo-Nazis. Ukraine and the West say this is a false pretext used to try to justify the incursion. Earlier on Monday, Kyiv denounced Moscow's offer to allow Ukrainian civilians to flee to Russia and Belarus, describing it as nothing more than an "immoral" stunt to exploit the suffering of civilians. Russia's military said on Monday morning that humanitarian corridors would be opened in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy and Mariupol, effective from 10 a.m. Moscow time. Russia is trying to "use people's suffering to create a television picture," said a spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine," the spokesperson added, according to Reuters. It has been reported that the Russian military has violated previous cease-fires. The U.N. refugee agency said on Sunday that more than 1.5 million people had fled Ukraine since the invasion began. The United Nations' high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, called it "the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II" in a tweet posted on Sunday.