President Vladimir Putin has again called for security guarantees for Russia, saying they will be needed to end the war in Ukraine, Reuters and Bloomberg reported.

In an interview published by the RIA Novosti agency on Wednesday, just two days before the start of the presidential elections in Russia, Putin said that Moscow is ready to end the war by “peaceful means”, but that Ukraine must take into account “the realities on the ground”.

Both Putin and his spokesman Dmytro Peskov, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other Moscow officials have repeatedly used this wording, referring to the fact that Ukraine must accept the loss of its territories claimed by Russia and which the Kremlin leader declared annexed in September 2022.

“In this case, we are mainly interested in the security of Russia. We will move on from this,” he said in an interview on Wednesday about the security guarantees that Moscow claims.

When asked if a “correct understanding” with the West is possible, Putin replied that Russia wants written guarantees.

“I don’t trust anyone, but we need guarantees, and the guarantees must be in writing, they must be of such a nature that we are satisfied,” he explained.

What security guarantees did Russia ask for earlier?

While Putin has been tight-lipped about the guarantees he wants, in December 2021, before the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia published and formally submitted to Western offices a list of the security guarantees it seeks.

Moscow then demanded, among other things, that NATO abandon all military activities in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, but also that the alliance not deploy additional troops and weapons outside the countries that were in it in May 1997. year (before any Eastern European country joins NATO), except in exceptional cases and only with the consent of Russia.

In an interview on Wednesday, Putin also spoke again about Russia’s nuclear arsenal, saying his country is ready for a nuclear war, but he doesn’t think “things are rushing to something like that.”

Putin, the ultimate decision-maker on Russia’s nuclear weapons, reiterated that their use is spelled out in Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, which defines the circumstances under which Russia can use its nuclear weapons.

“Weapons exist to be used. We have our principles,” said Putin, who has warned several times over the past two years that the West risks provoking a nuclear war if it sends troops to fight in Ukraine.

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