Russia has announced its conditions for ending the war in Ukraine. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin announced them the day before. Their first point is the cessation of supplies of Western arms to Ukraine. The second point is Kiev’s non-aligned status.
“We are convinced that a settlement is possible only if the Ukrainian Armed Forces cease hostilities and Western arms deliveries. To achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, Ukraine must return to the neutral non-aligned status enshrined in the 1990 declaration on its state sovereignty and renounce accession to NATO and the EU,” Galuzin said.
And one more point – in Russia’s view, Kiev should recognise the “new territorial realities”.
The next element of the settlement should be “protection of the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities” at the legislative level.
We shall remind you that Russia’s active invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022. So far, Russia has occupied Crimea, Kherson, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhya regions. Ukraine has been asking for help from the world since then. Ukraine is being helped by the so-called Peace Foundation.
Бюджет фонда составляет чуть меньше 8 миллиардов евро на период с 2021-го до 2027 года. С 2021 года ЕС выделил из фонда на помощь Украине чуть больше 4,5 миллиардов евро. Большая часть этих средств была предоставлена уже после начала полномасштабного российского вторжения – именно эти деньги используются для компенсаций странам, оказывающим Украине военную помощь.
Now 2.3 billion euros remain in the fund, but it is possible that the budget until 2027 will be increased, as it already was in March 2023: then the budget was expanded by about 3 billion euros. EU member states contribute to the fund each year according to the size of their economies. Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands are the biggest contributors to the fund – they have the highest gross national income in the EU.
The compensation mechanism for countries for their military support to Ukraine through the peace fund works as follows: a country chooses one of two options for calculating compensation:
– if the donated military equi.pment is currently in production, it is reimbursed based on its price.
– If the equipment is no longer in production and is needed to restore the country’s core military capabilities, countries can ask to be compensated not for the value of the donated equipment, but for the cost of the replacement equipment purchased with newer ones.
