Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced the necessity that Ukraine remain neutral in order to restore peace between the two neighboring countries.

“If there is no neutrality, it is difficult to imagine the existence of any good-neighborly relations between Russia and Ukraine,” Putin said on Thursday at Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi.

If Ukraine is not neutral, it will be “constantly used as a tool in the wrong hands and to the detriment of the interests of the Russian Federation,” he said of Ukraine’s push to join the US-led NATO. 

Putin said, “We are determined to create conditions for a long-term settlement so that Ukraine is an independent, sovereign state, and not an instrument in the hands of third countries, and not used in their interests.”

The Russian leader said the people who live in the ex-Soviet republic should be allowed to determine the future of the region once the current war is ended.

“The borders of Ukraine should be in accordance with the sovereign decisions of people who live in certain territories and which we call our historical territories,” he said.

Putin said Ukraine would have to drop its NATO ambitions to prevent the Western military alliance from encroaching on Russia’s western borders.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky claims the condition set by Russia for a long-term settlement of the conflict is tantamount to Kiev’s surrendering to Moscow.

Instead, the former Kiev TV actor has presented his “victory plan” for which he has requested more arms and ammunition from his US-led Western backers.

However, US President-elect Donald Trump has criticized Zelensky over the waste of huge shipments of weaponry already supplied to Ukraine since the start of the Russian special operation in Feb 2022. Trump has vowed to end the war in Ukraine.

Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine’s Donbas in February 2022 after several years of international negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Since the war started, Western countries have been backing Zelensky with vast diplomatic and financial support, providing Kiev forces with huge shipments of arms and munitions despite repeated warnings by the Kremlin that pursuing such a policy would only prolong the war and add to the misery and destruction.