Kremlin says 2022 draft document could serve as starting point for future Ukraine peace talks

MOSCOW — A draft peace deal negotiated by Russia and Ukraine at the start of the conflict could serve as a starting point for negotiations aimed at ending the fighting, the Kremlin said Friday, echoing a proposal that Ukraine had rejected.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the draft document discussed in Istanbul in March 2022 could be “the basis for starting negotiations”. At the same time, he noted that possible future negotiations should take into account “new realities”.

“Many changes have taken place since then, new entities have been included in our constitution,” Peskov said in a conference call with journalists.

In September 2022, Russia annexed four Ukrainian regions, a move that kyiv and its Western allies rejected as illegal.

The document discussed in Istanbul weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 would have included provisions on Ukraine’s neutral status and imposed limits on its armed forces while delaying negotiations on the status of areas occupied by Russia. No agreement was reached and negotiations collapsed shortly after this round of talks.

Russia has rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s peace formula, which would force Moscow to withdraw its troops, pay compensation to Ukraine and appear before an international tribunal for its action.

Ukraine, in turn, has categorically rejected the possibility of negotiating with Russia at this stage of the conflict, especially without a guarantee that Moscow will withdraw from the occupied areas that currently cover a fifth of the country. Ukraine and its allies believe Russia is seeking a ceasefire deal now to buy time and build up its forces to conquer more territory.

Domestically, agreeing to negotiations with Russia would be a deeply unpopular decision and would be a blow to national morale after more than two years of war and tens of thousands of deaths. At the same time, Ukrainian forces are struggling to combat a better-resourced and more powerful Russian military, while a new U.S. military aid package is blocked in Congress.

So far, Ukrainian officials say they have faced no pressure from their Western allies to negotiate with Russia.

Peskov’s statement followed comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, in which he mocked upcoming Ukraine peace talks that Switzerland is expected to host in June, warning that Moscow would not agree to any forced peace plans.

“We are ready for constructive work, but we will not accept any attempts to impose a position that is not based on realities,” Putin said during a meeting in Moscow with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, adding that the draft Istanbul document could serve as a basis for negotiations.

“We can work with it,” he said.

Putin has repeatedly said he sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022 to protect Russian interests and prevent Ukraine from posing a major threat to Russia’s security by joining NATO. kyiv and its allies have denounced the Russian military campaign as an unprovoked act of aggression.

Putin vowed to extend Moscow’s gains in Ukraine, saying Russian forces have the upper hand after Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive and that Ukraine and the West will “sooner or later” have to agree to a settlement on Moscow terms.

Separately, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced Friday that the bodies of 99 Ukrainian soldiers had been repatriated from Russia. Among them, 77 of the returnees had fought in the Donetsk region, 20 in the Zaporizhzhia region and two in the Kharkiv region.