At the 2022 Istanbul peace talks, Russia and Ukraine were close to an agreement to end the conflict, but “some countries” did not want it, Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus said on Habertürk TV, RBC.
“At the negotiations in Dolmabahçe (palace in Istanbul), the work almost reached the point of signing. But, unfortunately, some countries did not want the war to end. Because the United States is trying to consolidate the European continent because of the military actions in Ukraine, wants to drag Russia into serious trouble, and considers regional upheavals important for the balance of power there,” he stated.
Kurtulmus noted that in order to end the conflict as quickly as possible, Moscow and Kiev must “clearly state their political intentions.”
The second round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine took place in Turkey at the end of March 2022, the first was held at the end of February in Belarus. At the beginning of the summer, the negotiations were suspended, and the parties accused each other of violating the agreements.
In November 2023, Ukrainian politician Davyd Arahamia, who headed the country’s delegation to those talks, said that Kiev’s decision to refuse to continue the talks was influenced, among other things, by the advice of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“When we came back from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kiev and said that we will not sign anything with them. And “let’s just fight,” he said then. Johnson himself later called claims of his involvement in the failure of the talks “Russian propaganda.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pushing for an end to the conflict through a “peace formula” that would involve withdrawing Russian troops to the 1991 borders. Moscow rejects such a scenario.
In June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out his conditions for a ceasefire and the start of negotiations: withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, international recognition of these four regions and Crimea as Russian territories, refusal of Kiev from participating in military alliances and lifting Western sanctions. Zelensky called this proposal an ultimatum.
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