Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba has denied Russian narratives claiming that Ukraine rejected a potential peace deal with Moscow in the spring of 2022 under pressure from the UK.
Speaking in a video statement posted on his X/Twitter account, Kuleba labelled such stories as one of Russia’s “the favorite lies promoted by Russia and its sympathizers.” He stated that upon closer examination of the facts, this whole story “does not hold water.”
Kuleba urged considering why Russia is pushing this narrative, noting that by focusing attention on the Istanbul talks, Russians are attempting to shift the blame for the war in the middle of Europe away from themselves as the aggressor in Ukraine.
“They want people to forget that it was Russia that started the full-scale war in February 2022 and instead focus on the talks at the end of March 2022,” Kuleba said.
The minister explained that by shifting the focus, Moscow aims to convince everyone that Russia genuinely wanted peace, but Ukraine rejected it. He acknowledged that Ukrainian and Russian delegations did meet in Istanbul early in the full-scale invasion to discuss ways to end the war.
“But the positions were so far away, and Russian demands were so bizarre, that the prospect of a real solution was not even remotely in sight. The draft documents leaked in the press simply reflect that discussion, but cannot be considered a real deal. Every diplomat knows, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. And it is very certain that nothing was agreed in March or April 2022,” Kuleba stressed.
Kuleba also dismissed another Russian narrative, which alleges that former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv and pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy not to conclude a peace deal with Russia.
“This is a very funny story. First, anyone who has ever met President Zelensky knows that he’s not the person who can be pressured into any decision. Second, because the process of talks between delegations actually continued throughout April and even May, well beyond Johnson’s visit,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said, mentioning a leaked Russian draft.
The Foreign Minister stated the only one to blame for the failure of any potential agreement is Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
“[Putin] has been ruining peace in Ukraine for more than a decade. First, by occupying Crimea and parts of the Donbas in 2014, then by obstructing the Minsk and Normandy peace processes, then by launching full-scale aggression, and then by refusing to end it. This is why the war drags on,” Kuleba noted.
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