Are you wondering about what Putin is demanding from Ukraine?
It has been nearly three weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The west has congratulated itself on the sanctions imposed on Moscow, but these countries’ leaders are also scratching their heads.
What will their actions accomplish and what exactly is Vladimir Putin’s endgame in Ukraine?
The U.S., NATO, and the European Union have had one focus in the last few weeks: strangling the Russian economy and arming Ukrainian fighters.
It is unclear how this will stop the war.
No one knows what Vladimir Putin is thinking currently, and there is no reason to believe that sanctions will shake his determination.
The U.S. and NATO both don’t see a breaking point for Putin. There is no economic toll so severe or battlefield losses so devastating that would convince the Russian president to order his troops to return in the face of all of this.
The good news is that Vladimir Putin laid out his demands to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call on Thursday.
The question now is:
What Is Putin Demanding From Ukraine?
Vladimir Putin’s demands are divided into two categories.
What are the demands?
- Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, must remain neutral and refuse to apply for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
- Ukraine would have to go through a disarmament process to ensure that it did not pose a threat to Russia.
- In Ukraine, the Russian language would need to be protected.
- Vladimir Putin stated that he and President Zelensky would need to meet face-to-face before reaching an agreement on these issues.
U.S. president Joe Biden says that Ukraine will never be a victory for Putin, but the point is that Ukraine might not be a complete defeat for Putin either.
Sanctions and military aid may help slow down the Russian advance, but these sanctions and actions are unlikely to end the fighting.
The Kremlin says that it may still opt to take control of large cities as Russian troops circle major urban hubs in Ukraine.
The defense ministry says it did not rule out putting large cities under its full control and that exceptions would be made for areas being used as humanitarian corridors.
Even though the white house seems to agree that a complete occupation is Putin’s only goal, he clearly has more than a message in mind here.
We’ll update this article in the future.
