Kremlin: Ceasefire Only Possible After Kyiv Withdraws From Donbas

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said on Friday that a ceasefire in Ukraine is only possible after Kyiv's forces withdraw from the entire Donbas region, with the area they currently control taken over by Russian National Guard, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

"A ceasefire can only come about after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops," Ushakov was quoted as saying.

"If not by negotiation, then by military means, this territory will come under the full control of the Russian Federation. Everything else will depend entirely on that," he added.

Russia currently controls the whole of Luhansk region, and around 80% of Donetsk region, although Kyiv continues to hold several large and heavily fortified cities, including Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Kommersant also cited Ushakov as saying in an interview that, under a peace plan, it is possible that only Russia's Rosgvardiya National Guard would be deployed to those parts of the Donbas that are currently under Ukrainian control. He said that the Russian army would be absent from those areas.

It cited him as saying: "It's entirely possible that there won't be any troops there, either Russian or Ukrainian. But there will be the Russian national guard, our police, everything necessary to maintain order and organize life."

Russia's national guard is a military-style force of internal troops, numbering about 400,000. They were deployed in Ukraine from the opening stages of the war in 2022, and include some units from Chechnya that have played a major role in the campaign in Ukraine.

In 2023, Russian passed a law allowing the national guard to acquire and use heavy weaponry, including tanks and artillery.