Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday set a key condition for stopping the war his forces are waging on Ukraine, and addressed the West on establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
"Our proposals are on the table of a group of negotiators from Kyiv. We hope that they will respond to them positively," the Russian president said.
Putin explained that the most important demand is the demilitarization of Ukraine, adding, "We need to clearly know the type and location of weapons and who controls them," revealing that various options are currently being discussed with the Ukrainian delegation.
Putin said that "the destruction of the military infrastructure" in Ukraine "as part of the operation (...) has been practically completed."
In a related context, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West against establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
In his meeting with female pilots of the Russian state airline Aeroflot, Putin said, "Every move in this direction will be viewed by us as the participation of the countries concerned in the armed conflict."
He indicated that it would not matter then which organization these no-fly countries belong to.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to prevent Russia from launching more air strikes on his country.
But NATO rejected this demand earlier, and its Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said - on Friday - that the allies agreed that NATO planes should not conduct operations in Ukrainian airspace.
No emergency in Russia
In the Russian interior, Putin said that he does not currently see any reason to impose martial law in his country.
Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying that such a situation requires external aggression, or fighting in specific areas.
"But we don't have such a situation, and I hope it won't happen," the president added, adding that he had no intention of declaring a state of emergency.
Putin has allayed the fears of many Russians, many of whom have already left the country.
For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Ukraine to adhere to the ceasefire around the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha.
Today, Saturday, the Russian Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying: "We are counting on the clear implementation of this agreement, and our army has carried out its mission in this regard."
"The most important thing is for people to get out of cities and villages through humanitarian corridors," he added.
The Russian Ministry of Defense had announced that the agreed humanitarian corridor had been bombed.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian side reported that the evacuation of residents from Mariupol was initially postponed for security reasons, as it indicated that the Russian side did not adhere to the ceasefire.