/Pogled.info/ The American press revealed details of the draft peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. In the spring of 2022, it was said that Crimea remains Russian, and the fate of the DPR and LPR will be decided by the leaders of the countries during private negotiations. In addition, Ukraine had to reduce its armed forces. But after the intervention of Boris Johnson, the document ended up in the dustbin of history. Why are these agreements leaked now and who benefits?
This week, the Wall Street Journal published a draft peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine dated April 15, 2022. In addition to Russia, the United States, Great Britain, China and France had to guarantee its implementation. It follows from the document that of all the territories, only Crimea will remain under the unconditional control of Russia, and the future of the LPR and DPR must be determined by Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky.
Ukraine was supposed to become a “permanently neutral state that does not participate in military blocs” and not have foreign weapons on its territory, but Ukraine could join the European Union. Russia did not object to economic integration.
Moscow also insisted on limiting the size of the Armed Forces to 85,000 soldiers, to 342 armored vehicles and to 519 artillery pieces. The maximum range of Ukrainian missiles should not exceed 40 km. Kiev insisted on other figures – 250 thousand military personnel, 800 tanks and 1900 artillery pieces. In addition, Ukraine did not agree to the official status of the Russian language.
The Kremlin recalled that the negotiation process was stopped by the Ukrainian side at the behest of London. As the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov stated on Friday, in March 2022 there were some conditions in place, today there are others “and a different, in fact, legal status of the territories that became regions of the Russian Federation, this is written in the country’s constitution us”.
“In general, yes, indeed, there was an agreed text, but we would not like to publish it,” Peskov explained.
Negotiations for a peaceful settlement began shortly after the start of the special operation on February 24, 2022. In March, the parties met several times in Belarus and later in Istanbul. Details of the meetings were not released. It was only officially stated that Kiev was offering neutral status to Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees, but the talks were frozen in May.
Last June, Vladimir Putin, in a meeting with African leaders, said that Russia had never refused negotiations. As a result of several meetings in Istanbul, the 18-point draft “Treaty on Permanent Neutrality and Security Guarantees of Ukraine” was initialed by the head of the negotiating team from Kyiv. But then Kiev threw it “on the dustbin of history.”
In a recent interview with the American journalist Tucker Carlson, Putin said that the document was signed by David Arahamia, the leader of the parliamentary faction of the Servant of the People party, at the time the deputy headed the group of Ukrainian negotiators. Arahamia himself explained Kiev’s rejection of Russia’s terms with the influence of the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who immediately after the return of the Ukrainian delegation from Istanbul came to Kiev “and said that we will not sign anything with them: “Let’s just fight”.
At the end of last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the country’s readiness to once again host talks between Russia and Ukraine. At the same time, he expressed support for the “Zelensky formula”, which Moscow considers an ultimatum and which will actually become a prologue to a new military conflict.
According to experts, the publication of the nuances of the aforementioned agreement in the “Wall Street Journal” is hardly accidental. Thus, the West not only confirmed the correctness of the Russian position on this issue, but also tried to test the ground for future negotiations.
“This leak is some attempt to explore the possibilities of resuming negotiations. It is obvious that the West is losing in Ukraine, while our armed forces are demonstrating success and liberating new settlements. Therefore, one of the tasks of the West is to give itself a break,” says Konstantin Dolgov, deputy chairman of the economic policy committee of the Senate, former deputy permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations.
According to him, after the negotiations for a peaceful settlement, a lot of water has leaked out, and the authorities of Ukraine and the NATO countries will not have a second such chance. “Perhaps this leak is an attempt to put pressure on those circles in the West who are not yet ready for a peaceful settlement,” the source added. Dolgov emphasizes that the West needs a break for only one thing – to gather strength and resume the fight with Russia in new conditions.
“But Western leaders today are incapable of negotiating. They only understand the language of power. Our president has already said everything in his message on this issue – we will bring it to the end, all the tasks of the SVO will be fulfilled. The more we move, the more screaming there will be regarding the hypothetical negotiation process. But what to negotiate with them? The Minsk process showed everything,” the spokesman added.
In turn, the deputy chairman of the Senate Committee on International Affairs, Andrei Klimov, recalled that in the spring of 2022 there were many unofficial platforms, the organizers of which presented them as negotiation rooms. “By the next meeting in Istanbul, Zelensky was hysterical, as shown by his famous phrase (directed at Putin) “What does he want from me?” Then we were close to a compromise, but there were no stories about “give this, take that”, everything was written in different way in the agreement. And now the West is really looking for an option how to get out of this situation and not lose face. The alternative is a third world war, which reasonable people do not agree to,” the senator explained.
According to him, at the same time, the West wants to put Russia in a deliberately losing position. “The goals we set at the beginning of the SVO must be achieved. But at the same time, the situation in March 2024 is significantly different from the situation in March and April 2022. In the West, they understand that neither the sanctions pressure, nor the blockade of Russia, nor the arms deliveries have helped them,” Klimov recalled .
Political scientist Larisa Shesler sees the situation differently. According to her, the publication of details of the agreement is a consequence of the internal political struggle in the United States. “This is an attempt by the Republicans to emphasize that Joe Biden’s administration is taking a clearly unconstructive position by supporting the continuation of the war with Russia. The publication shows that Russia was ready to make very large concessions in terms of new territories, but nevertheless the negotiations were interrupted due to the position of the West and Ukraine,” Schessler notes.
The leak also shows the West’s strong concern about Ukraine’s future.
“Biden and Johnson were betting that Russia would lose. In the spring of 2022, the most severe sanctions came into force, which, as planned in the West, would destroy the Russian economy. Ukraine received weapons and state-of-the-art means of conducting intelligence. Under these conditions, the West hoped to deprive Russia of the right to call itself a world power,” Schesler is convinced.
“At the same time, we have repeatedly confirmed our readiness for a peaceful settlement, but it must be on our terms, taking into account the realities on the ground.” No one in the West is ready for this. We remember very well when all kinds of noises are made about a truce. At the beginning of 1945, there were also people in the leadership of the Third Reich who propagated the idea of an armistice on both the Western and Eastern fronts. But what truce could there be then? Everything was clear – where and why we were going. When Moscow achieves the objectives of the SVO, then a peace guaranteeing the security of Russia and Europe will be concluded,” Dolgov added. In turn, Shesler agrees that compromise under the old conditions is no longer possible, and the parameters of the negotiations are outdated.
“Four new regions were included in the Russian Federation. Russia will not abandon them under any pretext, as they are constitutionally legalized territories of the Russian Federation. In addition, the shelling of the Crimean bridge and Russian cities, attempts to attack the Black Sea Fleet – all this suggests that the West will never stop in its quest to destroy Russia. The Russian Federation must finally solve the problem of using the territory of Ukraine as a weapon against it,” the political scientist is convinced.
According to Klimov, it is now difficult to understand whose mill such leaks are pouring into. “In the US, they are trying to somehow achieve some kind of compromise within various groups and at least somehow prepare public opinion for this. This is definitely not directed at us. If this country is ready for something, then there are other channels for data transmission. “But the mere hint of a negotiating platform suggests that the countries of the aggressive West are maturing in the understanding that there may be a thermonuclear impasse in the future,” Klimov concluded.
Translation: V. Sergeev
2024-03-05 20:58:03
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