MOSCOW (Reuters) – The aborted April 2022 peace deal between Russia and Ukraine could serve as a basis for new negotiations but there is no indication Kyiv is ready for those talks, the spokesperson said on Friday of the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia and Ukraine almost concluded an agreement two years ago in Istanbul to end their conflict, less than two months after the start of the invasion launched by Moscow, but Ukraine gave up after the failure of the Russian offensive on Kyiv.
This pact would have contained clauses by which Kyiv would have renounced its geopolitical neutrality, would have undertaken not to join NATO, to limit the size of its armed forces and to grant special status to eastern Ukraine – conditions already all rejected by Volodimir Zelensky.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin once again raised the possibility of talks, saying he was open to “realistic” negotiations but hostile to the discussions that Ukraine is trying to organize without Moscow’s approval, such as the conference that Switzerland plans to host in mid-June.
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Asked about this, Dmitri Peskov declared that the situation in Ukraine had evolved significantly in two years, referring in particular to the annexation by Moscow – not recognized by the international community – of four regions in eastern Ukraine. .
The Kremlin spokesperson said that the Istanbul agreement could still form the basis for new talks, assuring that Moscow was ready for this, while “not having the feeling” that Ukraine was willing to discuss .
Kyiv demands the restoration of its territorial integrity, including the restitution of Crimea annexed by Moscow in 2014, and the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory.
(Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the French version)
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