Did Ukraine miss the opportunity to soon negotiate peace with Russia? 0
(Dan Tri) – In the latest article published on January 4, the Wall Street Journal said that Ukraine may have missed the opportunity to soon negotiate with Russia for a beneficial peace agreement.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan speaks to the Russian and Ukrainian delegations at peace talks in Istanbul on March 29, 2022 (Photo: Getty).
A few weeks after Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, diplomats from both sides met for peace negotiations.
Ukraine’s chief negotiator, David Arakhamia, points to a bottle of disinfectant gel on a table covered with a white cloth as Russian and Ukrainian peace delegations gather at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Türkiye.
`Ah, I thought it was vodka,` Mr. Medinsky jokingly replied.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleban publicly warned Ukrainian negotiators not to accept any drinks from Russians and not to touch any surfaces to avoid the risk of poisoning.
What actually happened on that crucial day and immediately afterward has become a matter of fundamental disagreement between Ukraine, Western nations and Russia.
The first meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators took place on February 28, 2022 in the city of Gomel, Belarus, 4 days after Russian tanks crossed the Ukrainian border.
Mr. Mykhailo Podolyak, one of the Ukrainian negotiators and Zelensky’s advisor, recalled: `We listened to them and realized that these were not people sent to negotiate but to persuade us to surrender.
On March 10, Foreign Minister Kuleba flew to the Turkish resort town of Antalya to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, in the first meeting between the two countries’ top diplomatic officials since the conflict.
Foreign Minister Lavrov did not respond, instead making the usual Russian accusations that Ukraine had become a neo-Nazi state and wanted to destroy Russia.
In the 19 days between the meeting in Antalya and the talks in Istanbul, the situation on the battlefield changed dramatically in favor of Ukraine.
Throughout the negotiations, the issue of Ukraine’s membership in NATO was an important part.
When Turkish President Recep Erdogan opened negotiations in Istanbul on March 29, the task of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation was to persuade Russia to withdraw its troops to the pre-conflict position, while showing an open attitude.
Russia’s main demand, in addition to Ukraine not joining NATO, is also to limit the country’s ability to defend itself in the future.
As soon as the conference began, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made a dramatic announcement from Moscow: the main goals of Russia’s `special military operation` had been generally completed.
Hours later, Mr. Medinsky appeared at a press conference in Istanbul with even more startling news: the talks that took place that day had made significant progress and Moscow had decided to take steps
Advisor and negotiator to President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak (center) speaks to reporters after negotiations in Istanbul on March 29, 2022 (Photo: Getty).
According to Russia, Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul have accepted most of Moscow’s demands.
However, Ukraine vehemently opposed this.
Events in Bucha
On the evening of March 29, as negotiators met in Istanbul and planned to convene the next round of negotiations, Ukrainian troops entered the town of Bucha near Kiev.
It was a horrifying scene: dozens of bodies lying rotting in the rain on Yablunska Street and surrounding areas of this town.
When videos allegedly filmed in Bucha spread on social networks, President Zelensky as well as most Ukrainians were very angry.
`What happened here is genocide,` Mr. Zelensky said with a stern expression during a visit to the town – marking the first time he left Kiev since the conflict erupted.
However, the Russian side completely denied the accusations and said that this was false information staged by Kiev to defame Moscow and create a pretext for action.
President Zelensky welcomed British Prime Minister Johnson to Kiev in April 2022 (Photo: Getty).
On April 9, 2022, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Kiev, becoming one of the first Western leaders to make such a visit since the conflict broke out.
It was the first trickle in a wave of increasingly modern Western weapons reaching Ukraine.
At the Kremlin, President Putin said that Washington, not London, had forced Mr. Zelensky to abandon negotiations in the hope of exhausting Russia in a protracted conflict.
President Zelensky’s new position, unchanged since then, is to demand that Russia withdraw all troops from all Ukrainian lands, including Crimea, and prosecute alleged Russian officials.
