Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday laid out his demands for ending the war in Ukraine during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the BBC.
Shortly after the discussion concluded, Ibrahim Kalin, a senior adviser to Erdogan who listened in, told the BBC about it and the details of Putin's requests.
According to BBC, the demands laid out by Putin fall into two categories.
Some of the demands would be simpler for Ukraine to accept than others, Kalin said.
First, Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks assurances from his Ukrainian counterpart that Ukraine should follow neutrality and drop its bid to join Nato. A demand which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy already conceded in the past few days.
Zelenskiy said on Tuesday his country "must admit" it wouldn't join Nato, a concession that could serve as an opening for peace talks with Russia.
Putin also wants Ukraine to complete a disarmament process, safeguard the Russian language, and engage in "de-Nazification," Kalin told BBC. However, Putin did not include any specific pathway for the “de-nazification” process.
The second category is where the difficulties will arise, according to Ibrahim Kalin, and Putin stated in his phone call that agreement on these topics would require face-to-face negotiations between him and President Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy has already stated that he is willing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and negotiate one-on-one.
Without going into the specifics, Kalin said the negotiations would probably involve the status of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine that were officially recognized as independent republics by Russia on the eve of invasion and the status of Crimea.
These two demands are the most contentious in peace negotiation as a presidential adviser to the Ukrainian president on Thursday stressed that Ukraine has not altered its position regarding the international borders in place when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The two breakaway regions in Donbass and Crimea were part of Ukraine when it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said repeatedly since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 that he will not compromise on his country's "territorial integrity."
"His main position has not changed," Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said on national television. "We will never give up our national interests."
Russia has told Ukraine it would immediately cease its military operations if Kyiv met their conditions, including changing its constitution to ensure neutrality, acknowledging Crimea as belonging to Russia, and acknowledging Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.
During the phone call, Erdogan also offered to host Putin and Zelenskiy for talks, reports Reuters quoting the Turkish president's office.
