Conditions for peace negotiations with shall include the withdrawal of Russian troops, reparations, and investigation of war crimes – Wesley Clark

The conditions of diplomatic negotiations with Russia shall include the complete withdrawal of their troops from Ukraine, the return of all abducted people, the payment of reparations, and the readiness to cooperate in the investigation of war crimes.

This was stated by the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Wesley Clark at the 17th Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting “Ukraine: Defending All Our Freedom”, organised by YES in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

“I want us to suggest a diplomatic settlement, and it should contain four main components. Russia withdraws from Ukraine. Russia returns all forcibly deported people. Russia pays reparations, let us say, from their oil money. Russia cooperates in the war crimes investigation,” said Wesley Clark.

However, he admitted that under the current conditions, Russia’s political leadership will not accept any of these conditions. At the same time, this does not mean that, in the future, circumstances will not force Vladimir Putin to sit down at the negotiating table on exactly these terms.

“If you go to Putin and tell him about it now, he will laugh because he still believes he will win. But we need to work on it. If Putin is not willing to do this, we will need to supply more military equipment to Ukraine in order to put more pressure on him and show him that he cannot win. The war will end when Putin decides that he cannot win,” said the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO.