The Kremlin has issued a wish list of demands that it says would allow it to abandon its brutal assault on Ukraine “in a moment.” On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine would have to change its constitution to guarantee it would not join NATO or the European Union, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory, and formally recognize the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent. “They should make amendments to their constitution according to which Ukraine would reject any aims to enter any bloc,” said Peskov. “We have also spoken about how they should recognize that Crimea is Russian territory and that they need to recognize that Donetsk and Lugansk are independent states. And that’s it. It will stop in a moment.” The set of explicit demands came hours ahead of a third planned round of talks between Ukraine and Russia.
