ISTANBUL

There will be peace in Ukraine when Russia achieves the goals of its “special military operation” launched in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

“There will be peace when we achieve our goals … they do not change. Let me remind you what we talked about then: the denazification of Ukraine, its demilitarization, its neutral status,” Putin said in his annual televised press conference in Moscow.

Expressing that these were the subjects discussed during negotiations in Istanbul in March 2022, Putin said his country will be forced to take other measures, including military ones, if Ukraine refuses a peace deal.

Commenting on the prospects of normalizing relations with the EU, Putin said it depended on the bloc itself because it was Brussels that “spoiled relations” with Moscow.

He defined what is happening in Ukraine as a “huge tragedy, similar to a civil war between brothers,” saying Russians and Ukrainians are the same people who found themselves on opposite sides.

He said the 2014 Maidan Revolution made it clear that the West would not let Russia build normal relations with Ukraine, saying that its desire to “creep towards our borders” and the conflict in Donbas also led to the protests, which led to the ousting of then-President Viktor Yanukovych.

“What the US conceived and organized, Europe stands and silently watches, or plays and sings along with them there. Well how can we build relations with them?” he said.

Commenting on ties with the US, Putin said Russia is ready to build relations and believes it is “an important and necessary country for the world," but its "imperial policy" hinders it.