Ukraine must be neutral – Putin

Kiev will remain a tool in foreign hands and will never achieve true independence and sovereignty unless it becomes neutral, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

This neutral status for Ukraine is a key prerequisite for ending the conflict permanently, he told the press at the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.

“If there’s no neutrality, it’s hard to imagine any kind of good-neighborly relations between Russia and Ukraine,” he responded to a journalist’s question about the conflict.

The Russian leader explained that without a neutral status, “Ukraine will constantly be used as a tool in foreign hands, to the detriment of the interests of the Russian Federation.” Thus, there would be no basis for normalizing relations, a scenario Moscow wishes to avoid, he added.

We are determined to create conditions for a long-term settlement, allowing Ukraine to eventually become an independent, sovereign state rather than a tool in the hands of third countries.

Putin noted that Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was a stark example of a senseless move imposed on Kiev by its Western sponsors, with the Ukrainian people now paying a heavy price as their army suffers “colossal” losses.

Previous temporary solutions to curb the conflict, namely the 2014-2015 Minsk Agreements, were used by the West to buy “time to arm the Ukrainian army,” Putin noted at a press conference following the BRICS Summit in Kazan last month.

While Russia recognized Ukraine’s borders after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Kiev’s declaration of independence at the time stated that the country would remain a neutral state, the Russian leader emphasized on Thursday. “But later, the Ukrainian leadership amended the constitution and announced its desire to join NATO, and that’s not what we agreed upon,” he said.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that it sees the US-led military bloc’s expansion toward Russia’s borders as an existential threat. Putin has identified Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO as one of the key reasons for the current conflict, which Moscow views as a de facto proxy war waged by Kiev’s Western sponsors against Russia.