Negotiated for a long time

Kremlin takes peace agreement out of the drawer

Russian President Vladimir Putin(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Kremlin sees a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, which was negotiated shortly after the start of the war but ultimately failed, as a possible basis for a new solution - and is making additional demands.

According to the Interfax news agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Friday that the agreement negotiated in Istanbul at the time could serve as the basis for new negotiations.

"New territories are now enshrined in our constitution, which was not the case two years ago," he qualified at the same time. The reason for the statements is the Swiss proposal for a peace conference, which is initially intended to mobilize more international support for Ukraine. Discussions with Moscow will only take place as a second step.

Agreement dates back to March 2022
At the end of March 2022, around a month after the attack on Ukraine ordered by Putin, when it became apparent that the capture of Kiev planned by Moscow would fail, negotiators from Ukraine and Russia reached a provisional agreement at talks in Istanbul to end the fighting. It later became known that Ukraine agreed to renounce its NATO membership and remain neutral.

However, the agreement was not implemented, partly because disagreements over territorial claims remained. Russia had started the war with the pretext of "liberating" the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which were partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists, from Kiev's rule. In the meantime, Russia has constitutionally declared these two regions as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions to be its own territory - even though it only has partial military control over them.

Another reason for the failure is that the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians in Kiev suburbs such as Butsha became known at the time. This made it impossible for Ukraine to reach an understanding.

Selenskyj demands withdrawal of Russian troops
In addition to territorial claims, Moscow's official demands to date include the renunciation of a powerful army and an unspecified "denazification" of Ukraine. This is most likely to mean the establishment of a pro-Moscow government in Kiev. All of this is seen in Ukraine as an invitation to surrender. For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selensky demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.

Peskov did not want to go into detail about Moscow's territorial claims. It is too early for details of what are still purely "theoretical negotiations". There are still no signs that Ukraine is willing to talk, he complained. In the propagandistic political talk shows on Russian television, the conquest of the cities of Kharkiv and Odessa or even the complete break-up of Ukraine is repeatedly discussed.