BERLIN, June 14. /TASS/. German politician, Bundestag member Sahra Wagenknecht, an opponent of anti-Russian sanctions and arms supplies to Kiev, has called for turning an attentive ear to Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest peace proposals for Ukraine.
"Ukraine and the West should avoid the historic mistake of rejecting signals from Moscow as unrealistic and maximalist demands," the DPA news agency quotes Wagenknecht as saying. "Instead, Putin's initiative should be taken with the necessary seriousness and regarded as a starting point for negotiations." Ukraine's long-term nuclear-free status and renunciation of NATO membership ambitions, the lawmaker said, are Russia’s demands that are easy to understand.
"It meets the existential European interests to find a compromise now to prevent the threat of a major European war," Wagenknecht stated. The heads of state and government of the Group of Seven (G7) countries, as the politician noted, should respond to the proposal as soon as possible.
Earlier, Putin said that Russia was making a new peace proposal for settling the conflict in Ukraine. It envisages recognition of the status of Crimea, the DPR, the LPR and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions as Russian territories, Ukraine's legally asserted non-aligned and nuclear-free status, its demilitarization and denazification, and the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions. For starting negotiations Ukraine must withdraw its forces from the DPR, the LPR, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.