LONDON, March 7. /TASS/. Russia is demanding that Ukraine halt its military activity, enshrine neutrality in its Constitution, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory and recognize independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Reuters news agency on Monday.
Russia is ready to halt its military operation "in any moment" if Kiev meets its demands, Peskov emphasized.
"They should make amendments to their constitution according to which Ukraine would reject any aims to enter any bloc. We have also spoken about how they should recognize that Crimea is Russian territory and that they need to recognize that Donetsk and Lugansk are independent states. And that’s it. It will stop in a moment," Peskov told Reuters.
"And they [the Ukrainian side] were told that all this can be stopped in a moment," the Kremlin press secretary added.
The Kremlin spokesman said that Russia was not seeking to make any further territorial claims on Ukraine, according to Reuters.
"We really are finishing the demilitarization of Ukraine. We will finish it. But the main thing is that Ukraine ceases its military action. They should stop their military action and then no one will shoot," Peskov said.
Adviser to the Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office Mikhail Podolyak said earlier on Monday that the third round of Russia-Ukraine talks would begin at 17:00 Moscow time on March 7. As a TASS correspondent reported from the scene, the Russian delegation has already arrived in Belovezhskaya Pushcha for talks with Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories and the operation was aimed at demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine.