"Putin's peace proposal is not serious"
Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal for a ceasefire and talks to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on Friday cannot be called "serious", according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Scholz made the statement just after the G7 summit in Italy before travelling to Switzerland where a peace summit for Ukraine is being held this weekend.
"Everyone knows that this proposal was not meant seriously, but had to do with the peace conference in Switzerland," Scholz said on German television.
Ukraine called Putin's conditions for ending the conflict "absurd": the war can end if, among other things, Ukraine renounces its ambition to join NATO and hands over the four partly occupied regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya) to Russia.
(Tagtik/Source: ZDF, DS/Illustration picture: Pixabay)
