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What Putin's ceasefire offer meant for Kyiv
Summary
A look back at the diplomatic pressures around Ukraine in mid-June 2024, from a Russian demand to a new US security pact.
What did diplomacy around Ukraine look like on 18 June 2024? The days just before that date set out two sharply opposed positions.
On 14 June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he was ready for a ceasefire on conditions: Ukraine would have to withdraw from Russian-claimed territories, including areas it had liberated, and halt its accession to NATO. Ukraine rejected the offer.
A competing track
A day earlier, on 13 June 2024, US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a ten-year security agreement. Its stated aim was to strengthen Ukraine's defensive capabilities.
Set side by side, the two developments showed how far apart the sides stood. Moscow's terms centred on territory and NATO membership. Kyiv, for its part, turned down those terms and secured a long-term commitment from Washington.
A separate European friction
Elsewhere in the region, on 17 June 2024, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk ordered Germany to explain a recorded incident in which German police appeared to abandon a migrant family at Osinów Dolny, just east of the Germany–Poland border. The episode was unrelated to the war, but it showed tension between two neighbours of Ukraine.
As of 18 June 2024, the ceasefire proposal had been rejected and the security agreement was in place.
