Feb. 25—Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the Russian Security Council, and gave remarks afterward, in which he called on Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) to separate themselves from the radical Stepan Bandera-tied militias. So far, it has been the radical battalion groupings persisting in the fighting. The UAF members are allowed to disarm and go home. Such a policy aims at breaking Ukraine’s institutions free from the neo-Nazi groupings, and to survive intact.

Putin also condemned the Kiev leadership’s decision today to base artillery in the residential areas of Kiev and other cities. He posed to the UAF members not to allow Kiev to use their “children, wives and loved ones as human shields” for the militias. Rather, the UAF can choose to “take power” in the country and negotiate peace with Moscow. “Take the power into your own hands!” encouraged Putin, arguing that the army would be a better negotiating partner than “a bunch of drug addicts and neo-Nazis,” who, he claimed, have “entrenched themselves in Kiev,” and have been holding the people “hostage.”