Speaking to 1+1 TV channel on November 24, MP David Arakhamia, who was the head of the Ukrainian delegation at the peace talks in Istanbul (Turkey) in late March 2022, said that at that time Moscow offered Kyiv a peace agreement but Ukraine did not trust Russia, according to RT.
"Russia's goal is to put pressure on us to remain neutral. This is the main problem for them: They are ready to end the war if we accept neutrality, like Finland did. And we will have to commit that we will not join NATO. This is the main thing," said Mr. Arakhamia.
However, agreeing to neutrality and abandoning the idea of joining NATO would require changing Ukraine's constitution, Arakhamia said. "Secondly, there is no confidence in the Russians that they will do this. This can only be done with security guarantees," Arakhamia told 1+1.
Mr. David Arakhamia during the Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul (Türkiye) in late March 2022
According to Arakhamia, while the negotiations were taking place, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv on April 9, urging Ukrainian officials to continue fighting and not sign any agreements with Moscow. Nearly a month later, the Ukrayinska Pravda (UP) newspaper quoted officials close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as saying that Johnson’s visit played a key role in convincing Kyiv to stop peace talks with Moscow.
However, neither Mr. Johnson, who will no longer be the British Prime Minister from September 6, 2022, nor the US government has ever officially acknowledged pressuring Kyiv to cancel the draft agreement that Mr. Arakhamia himself signed with the Russians. So far, Kyiv has never officially commented on this issue, according to RT.
Ukrainian servicemen fire an M777 howitzer supplied by the US near the front line in Donetsk province, eastern Ukraine, June 6, 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told African leaders this year that Moscow and Kyiv had signed a draft agreement “on permanent neutrality and security guarantees for Ukraine” at talks hosted by Turkey. Putin said that Ukraine had abandoned the agreement shortly after Russia withdrew its troops from the area around the capital Kyiv as a gesture of goodwill.
Russia's withdrawal was seen by Western governments and media as a military victory for Ukraine, and they began sending weapons and heavy equipment to Kyiv, according to RT.
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