The Foreign Ministry called on Kyiv to refuse to join NATO and the EU in order to achieve peace

The settlement of the conflict in Ukraine is possible if Kyiv refuses to join the European Union and NATO and stops the supply of Western weapons, declared TASS Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galuzin.

“We are convinced that a settlement is possible only if the hostilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the supply of Western weapons cease. In order to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, Ukraine must return to a neutral non-aligned status, recorded in the 1990 declaration of its state sovereignty, and refuse to join NATO and the EU,” Galuzin said.

He also urged to recognize the “new territorial realities” that have emerged as a result of “the realization of the right of peoples to self-determination.” Moscow’s approaches to resolving the conflict have not changed: it is “the protection of the inhabitants of Donbass, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from its territory” , added Galuzin.

Former Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova named the “peace formula” proposed by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, “a set of ultimatum demands to our country divorced from reality”.

According to her, for a sustainable peace, it is necessary to stop Western arms supplies to Ukraine, cease hostilities, neutral non-bloc and non-nuclear status of the country and the recognition of “new territorial realities”, the lifting of all sanctions against Russia, etc.

Zelensky in early November 2022, speaking at the G20 summit, listed 10 conditions of the “Ukrainian peace formula”, among which are the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory, fixing the end of the conflict, as well as ensuring food, energy and nuclear security. At the end of December 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Zelensky’s “peace formula” illusory. Based on it, Russia will not negotiate with anyone, he noted.

The President of Ukraine signed an application for Ukraine’s membership in the EU on February 28, 2022. In the summer of the same year, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, said that the heads of state and government of the European Union at the summit in Brussels approved granting Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidates for joining the organization. Among the political reforms that need to be carried out in Ukraine to start negotiations, the European Commission named changes in judicial oversight and efforts to reduce the influence of oligarchs.

During the Bucharest summit in 2008, NATO countries agreed that Ukraine would “become a member of NATO.” In 2019, the Verkhovna Rada approved amendments to the country’s Constitution that strengthen the desire to join NATO. Against the background of joining Russia in the fall of 2022, the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, Zelensky said that Ukraine would apply for NATO membership on an expedited basis.