Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Ukraine to withdraw from four eastern regions partially occupied by his forces as a condition of peace talks, a demand Kyiv dismissed as "manipulative” on the eve of a conference on the war to which Moscow hasn’t been invited.
Putin said Ukrainian forces should pull out from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of the country in return for a cease-fire by Russian troops. He also said Ukraine must give up its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a televised speech before Foreign Ministry officials on Friday.
Putin is seeking to "mislead the international community, undermine diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving a just peace and to split the unity of the majority of the world community,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The proposals set out a day before the Kyiv-backed conference show "Russia is afraid of genuine peace,” it said.