Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
The countries met at the negotiation table in the Spring of 2022, shortly after the war began – but several factors ended up ending the talk.
The countries met at the negotiation table in the Spring of 2022, shortly after the war began – but several factors ended up ending the talk.
Possible peace talks
Ukrainian President, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, has challenged Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to meet face to face in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday to initiate peace talks.
Haven’t met in years
It is still uncertain whether the talks will actually happen, but if they do, it will be the first talk of peace between the fighting countries since the Spring of 2022 – talks that did not go well.
What happened in 2022?
On February 28 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Belarus. This was just four days after the full-scale invasion. Later, meetings were held by video link, and on March 29 of the same year, the countries met again in Istanbul.
Breakdown
By mid-April, after the countries had exchanged a number of drafts, the negotiations broke down, however.
What did Ukraine propose?
Last year, The New York Times published the draft documents exchanged between Ukraine and Russia. According to the documents, Ukraine was ready to become a permanently neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free state in order to stop the bloodshed. They were also ready to effectively barring themselves from joining NATO by denying any foreign troops or weapons in the country
What Ukraine wanted in return
However, Ukraine wanted safety guarantees in return. These guarantees would come from a group of countries, including the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China, Britain, the U.S., France and Russia.
What did Russia demand?
According to Reuters, Russia demanded that Ukraine recognized Russian as an official state language as well as Ukraine ending discrimination against Russian-speakers – a discrimination, Ukraine denies.
Russian veto
Going back to the safety guarantees, Ukraine wanted the guarantors to provide assistance in case Ukraine was attacked. However, Russia insisted that any such desicion to assist would have to be unanimous, basically giving Russia a veto.
The size of the Ukrainian forces
Another point of contention was the size of the Ukrainian forces. Moscow demanded the Ukrainian forces to be reduced to a maximum of 85,000 personnel, 342 tanks and a 40 km missile range. Kiyv was ready to accept a cap size of 250,000 personnel, 800 tanks and a 280 km missile range.
The turn of the tide
Talks eventually broke down when Ukraine began to push back the Russian forces on the battlefield. Furthermore, Ukraine had shown alleged evidence of Russian war crimes, provoking international condemnation. Additionally, Western countries were ramping up military aid for Ukraine and escalating sanctions aimed at Moscow, meaning Ukraine became less inclined to accept Russian demands.
Has anything changed?
Where the original peace talks where mainly focused on the question of Ukrainian sovereignty, points of contention now seem to focus more on specific territories.
Putins demands
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, demands that Ukraine withdraws completely from the four regions Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russia has claimed these regions as Russian territory, even though Russian forces do not fully control them
Zelenskyys rejection
Kiyv, on the other hand, says that Ukraine will never legally recognise Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory. However, he has acknowledged that Ukrainian forces will not be able to take back the territories at this point.