MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. Russia calls for the demilitarization of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
"Everything that has been said above (about potential agreements with Kiev - TASS) can be reversed in a second if our so-called partners continue to pump the current Kiev authorities with state-of-art weapons. That is why the key point is a certain degree of demilitarization of today’s Ukraine, because it is the only objectively controlled factor, which can be monitored and reacted to," he said when asked by TASS what could promote a detente in relations with the West and Ukraine.
He said he wished the Donbass problem could be settled through talks and the implementation of the Minsk agreements, but "regrettably, this is no longer relevant."
He also stressed that it is inadmissible to flood Ukraine with weapons, especially bearing in mind its "nuclear ambitions."
Touching upon Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s remarks that he did not like the Minsk agreements, Putin said that in this way it might be possible to walk out of any other agreements, for instance, Kiev’s hypothetical pledge not to join NATO, although in this way the country’s authorities "would have in fact implemented the idea of neutrality."
"He (Zelensky) would resettle to Washington, Paris or Berlin, while we would have a heavily armed ‘anti-Russia’ next door. This is absolutely unacceptable, in particular, now, that Ukraine’s current leadership has declared its nuclear ambitions," Putin stressed.