At a press conference following Russia’s massive bombing of military installations, war-related infrastructure, and so forth in Kiev, Odessa, and Kharkiv the morning of June 2, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained that the war in Ukraine could end in a day if Ukraine were to withdraw its armed forces from the portions of the Russian-speaking territories of Ukraine that Kiev still controls. In that case, “the war could end in one day.”
Peskov stated that the Russian Armed Forces bombing campaign was undertaken in response to the Ukrainian armed forces’ May 21 massacre at a student dormitory of a trade college in Starobelsk within Russian-administered Lugansk, in which 21 students were killed and 41 injured. He continued: “The fact is that in Starobelsk, we are talking about a college that has never been a military facility, nor anything associated with the military. It has always been a place where young people studied, children, mostly girls. The Kiev regime was fully aware of this. Yet it destroyed the college knowingly and deliberately. This is evidenced by the type of drones used, their technical specifications, and the communication systems involved.” Peskov stressed the point that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made June 1, which, in Peskov’s words, is that “if the Kev regime is deliberately carrying out such inhumane terrorist acts against civilians and children, acts that are beyond the bounds of humanity, then we are dealing with an entirely different paradigm.”
Pressed by a reporter as to whether Russia is open to negotiations, Peskov said that, “yes, we are prepared to achieve our goals through peaceful negotiations.” Peskov stated, “I repeat, we remain open to peaceful negotiations. As for Zelenskyy’s remarks about ending the war before the end of the year, the war could be ended within a day. We have said this many times before, and the President [Putin] reiterated it when addressing the leadership of the Foreign Ministry.
“To do so,” Peskov concluded, “Zelenskyy would need to order his armed forces to withdraw from the territories of Russia’s regions.”
