Russia will finish the demilitarization of Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview to Reuters.
"We really are finishing the demilitarization of Ukraine. We will finish it. But the main thing is that Ukraine ceases its military activity. They should stop their military action and then no one will shoot," he said.
Russia was not seeking to make any further territorial claims on Ukraine, Peskov stressed.
"They should make amendments to their constitution according to which Ukraine would reject any aims to enter any bloc. We have also spoken about how they should recognise that Crimea is Russian territory and that they need to recognise that Donetsk and Lugansk are independent states. And that’s it. It will stop in a moment," Peskov added.
On 24 February, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against the Ukrainian forces.
Vladimir Putin called its goal "the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out "demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine", to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for "bloody crimes against civilians" in Donbass.
Prior to that, on 21 February, after an extraordinary large meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the citizens of Russia, saying that he considered it necessary to make a decision to immediately recognize the sovereignty of the LPR and the DPR.