Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations have held several meetings to discuss a peace agreement between the countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently stated that the agreement was ready, but its signing was thwarted by Ukraine. The material states that no final texts were agreed upon.
However, writes Foreign Affairs, by April 2022, Ukraine had prepared a draft communiqué on the negotiations, which recorded its neutral and non-nuclear status. Russia agreed to use it as the basis for a future treaty.
Kyiv agreed not to provide territory for foreign military bases and to refuse to join military alliances. According to the text, in addition to Russia and the United States, Great Britain, China and France were supposed to guarantee the security of Ukraine in the future. Kyiv wanted to include Turkey in the list, Moscow wanted Belarus.
The communiqué also stated that if Ukraine were attacked and asked for help, all guarantor states would be obliged to provide assistance to Kyiv to restore its security.
It was a question of introducing a no-fly zone, supplying weapons, or direct intervention with the help of the guarantor state’s own armed forces. The magazine notes that the obligations were spelled out more precisely than in the NATO treaty. In addition, guarantor states, including Russia, were supposed to promote Ukraine’s membership in the European Union.
Moscow is now saying that Ukraine refused negotiations under pressure from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson; he denies this. Foreign Affairs calls this interpretation “caricatured,” but notes that Western countries viewed the upcoming treaty “with deep skepticism.”
A former U.S. official involved in Ukraine policy at the time told the magazine that the Ukrainians did not consult Washington until following the communique was issued, even though the treaty it described would have created new legal obligations for the United States, including go to war with Russia if it invades Ukraine once more. This condition alone, as stated in the material, made the agreement unacceptable to Washington.
According to Foreign Affairs, in 2022, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s interest in negotiations declined due to a lack of Western enthusiasm for the topic. And following the retreat of the Russian army from Kyiv, Ukraine believed in the possibility of a military victory over Moscow. In addition, public opinion was outraged by the massacre of civilians by the Russian military in Bucha and Irpen. Kyiv began to put forward more stringent demands on Russia, including demanding the withdrawal of troops from Donbass. Soon the negotiations stalled.
In September 2022, Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine, which allowed the process of their formal annexation to begin. On the same day, Zelensky signed a decree prohibiting Ukraine from negotiating with Putin.
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2024-04-20 23:14:45
