BAKU, August 6. /TASS/. The Ukrainian people are paying very dearly for Kiev’s lack of urgency to get a peace deal done, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said.
"Each day it waits to make this decision [to settle the conflict] results in the loss of control over another part of the territories that Ukrainians claim to be theirs and, most importantly, the loss of thousands of lives," he said.
"The Kiev regime’s illusions that the Europeans will hold another grand peace summit for Ukraine, where all its domestic problems will be miraculously resolved, are costing the Ukrainian people dearly. Ukraine’s window of opportunity is closing. The choice is up to the Ukrainian people," he stressed.
In mid-June, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward a new peace proposal on settling the conflict in Ukraine. Thus, Russia insists that the status of Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions be recognized, Ukraine declare its off-bloc and non-nuclear status, be demilitarized and de-Nazified, and anti-Russian sanctions be lifted. Putin warned that if Ukraine and the West reject these terms, they may change in the future. Kiev turned this proposal down.
Putin also stressed that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s office term had expired and there was no way to prove his legitimacy. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov explained that Putin never rejects potential talks with Ukraine because there are other legitimate authorities in charge there.