Putin says Russia is ready for peace talks with Ukraine without any preconditions

Russia is ready for peace talks with Ukraine without preconditions, albeit on the basis of the Istanbul agreements and taking into account the realities on the ground, President Vladimir Putin said during his Q&A conference on December 19 in Moscow.

Photo: Kirov District Executive Committee by BelTA, https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/pdm/

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Belarus

"As for conditions to start negotiations. We have no preconditions, we are ready to conduct dialogue without preconditions, but it should be based on what we agreed upon during the negotiation process in Istanbul at the end of 2022. It should also be based on the realities that are developing on the ground today," Putin said.

The final document should be signed only with the legitimate Ukrainian government, that is, with the Verkhovna Rada and the Chairman of the Rada (currently Ruslan Stefanchuk — ed.), Putin added.

In March 2022, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said at the time that the parties had made progress. Kyiv, among other things, agreed to Ukraine's neutral status in exchange for security guarantees, he said. However, the negotiations were suspended in May.

Details

There have been several rounds of peace talks to halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present) and end the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present). The first meeting was held four days after the start of the invasion, on 28 February 2022, in Belarus. It concluded without result. A second and third round of talks took place on 3 and 7 March 2022 on the Belarus–Ukraine border. A fourth and fifth round of talks were held on 10 and 14 March in Antalya, Turkey. The negotiations in Turkey produced the Istanbul Communiqué. It proposed that Ukraine end its plans to eventually join NATO, have limits placed on its military, and would have obliged Western countries to help Ukraine in case of aggression against it. The talks almost reached agreement, with both sides considering "far-reaching concessions", but stopped in May 2022, due to several factors, including the Bucha massacre. Following the 2022 Ukrainian eastern counteroffensive, Russia renewed calls for peace talks, but Russian government sources suggested that Putin is not truly committed to peace and was simply stalling for time while its forces trained and replenished for a future advance. As of 2024, Ukraine's peace terms are that Russia withdraw its troops, that its leaders be prosecuted for war crimes, and that Ukraine have security guarantees. Russia's terms are that Russia must be allowed to keep all the land it occupies, that it also be given all of the provinces that it claims but does not fully control, and that Ukraine end plans to join NATO.