Moscow and Kiev were close to a peaceful resolution of the conflict during negotiations in Istanbul in the spring of 2022. This was announced by Oleksandr Chaly, former first deputy foreign minister of Ukraine and a member of the Kiev delegation to the talks with Moscow.
"We actually discussed with the Russian delegation for two months - March and April [2022]. And as you remember, we concluded the so-called "Istanbul Communiqué". And from mid-to-late April, we were very close to ending the military conflict and we had a kind of peace agreement in front of us," he said at a Geneva Center for Security Policy conference, a video of which was posted on the organization's YouTube channel on December 22.
Chaly also noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin really wanted to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict with Ukraine. The deputy foreign minister did not explain what exactly prevented the conclusion of an agreement in 2022.
On November 24, the head of the pro-presidential faction of the Ukrainian party "Servant of the People" David Arakhamia said that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had discouraged the Ukrainian side from signing peace agreements with Russia in 2022. According to him, Johnson said during his visit to Kiev: "Let's just fight."
Earlier, on November 22, Putin said that Russia had never left the peace talks on Ukraine. The Russian leader also stressed that any military action is always a tragedy and suggested that "we must think about how to stop this tragedy."
The latest round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine took place on 29 March 2022 in Istanbul. It lasted about three hours. Later, Kiev officially ended contacts with Moscow. On 4 October 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky enacted the decision of the country's National Security and Defence Council on the impossibility of negotiations with Putin.
The special operation to protect Donbas, which was announced on 24 February last year, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the deterioration of the situation in the region as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian army.
Izvestia/JaV
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