“No Schemes to Freeze the Conflict Will Suit Russia,” Says Russian Ambassador to UN

Russia will not consider any proposals to freeze the war in Ukraine, said Russian Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, at a UN Security Council meeting on December 16.

According to Nebenzya, a freeze would only serve to give Ukraine respite and an opportunity to regain its strength on the battlefield, which is against Russia’s interests, as neither the West nor Ukraine “can be trusted.”

He also dismissed the idea of NATO having any role in the resolution of the war.

“The Alliance and the prospect of Ukraine’s membership in it have been part of the problem from the start, not part of the solution,” Nebenzya stated.

Russia’s terms for ending the war are incompatible with those put forward by Ukraine and its Western allies, he said.

“Our conditions for ending the conflict are clear and logical, bearing no resemblance to the surrogate formulas recently proposed more frequently by Kyiv’s Western allies, which fail to eliminate the threat posed by the Kyiv regime to Russia.”

Russia’s terms for negotiation are the recognition of those Ukrainian territories currently under Russian occupation as part of the Russian Federation, among them Crimea and the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. In addition, Ukraine should have a neutral, non-nuclear, and demilitarized status.

Ukraine has continuously expressed that its territorial integrity, sovereignty, and concrete security guarantees against potential future Russian aggression are vital to a just and lasting peace.

Czech intelligence chief, Michael Koudelka, in an interview with Bloomberg on November 26, gave insight into what a peace on Russia’s terms would imply.

Forcing Ukraine into significant concessions to end the war would embolden the Kremlin and signal a dangerous precedent, he said.

“Russia would spend perhaps the next 10 to 15 years recovering from its huge human and economic losses and preparing for the next target, which is central and Eastern Europe.”

Russia remains, Koudelka stressed, “an imperial superpower with imperial desires.”

He emphasized that under international law, Russia must withdraw all troops, return occupied and annexed territories, and pay reparations.