The Kremlin said today that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should have made the “difficult decision“ to withdraw his forces from the Donbass region “yesterday” in order to end what he called the “hot phase” of the war, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comment a day after Zelensky said Russia had told the United States that it would tighten its terms for a peace agreement if Ukrainian forces did not withdraw from Donbas within two months.
Peskov did not directly answer the question of whether there was a two-month deadline for the withdrawal, saying that this was not the point.
“Zelensky must make a decision today for Ukrainian troops to leave the territory of Donbas. This has been stated many times“, he told journalists.
“And in theory he should have made this decision yesterday. As we have said, he should have taken responsibility and made this difficult decision. This could save many lives and, most importantly, make the end of the hot phase of this war possible.
Zelenskyy expressed surprise yesterday that anyone could believe that Russia could conquer the rest of Donbas within two months. He stressed that Ukraine wants a diplomatic solution but would only agree to a ceasefire along the current front lines.