Russia offered to end its invasion of Ukraine if it dumped plans to join NATO

[beijingwalker]

Russia offered to end its invasion of Ukraine if it dumped plans to join NATO
Rebecca Rommen
M11 27, 2023, 3:03 am

A Ukrainian politician said Russia proposed ending the war if Ukraine abandoned its NATO ambitions.

Russia made the proposal during peace talks soon after the full-scale invasion began.

"There is no, and there was no, trust in the Russians that they would do it," the politician said.

Russia offered to stop its invasion of Ukraine on the condition that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government abandon its ambition to join NATO, the Kyiv Post reported.

David Arakhamia, the leader of the Servant of the People party and the head of the Ukrainian delegation in the talks, said that Russia had proposed a resolution to the conflict in spring 2022.

The peace talks took place during the early stages of the full-scale war on the border of Ukraine and Belarus and in Turkey.

The Russian delegation reportedly proposed ending the war if Ukraine dropped its NATO aspirations and took a neutral position.

Arakhamia said that a shift toward neutrality would require a constitutional change, considering Ukraine's current constitutional commitment to NATO membership.

Arakhamia told Natalia Moseychuk, a Ukrainian journalist, that Russia saw Ukraine's neutrality as a key condition for a potential peace agreement. "They really hoped almost to the last that they would put the squeeze on us to sign such an agreement so that we would take neutrality. It was the biggest thing for them," he said.

Arakhamia said there was a lack of trust in Russia's sincerity. "There is no, and there was no, trust in the Russians that they would do it. That could only be done if there were security guarantees," he explained.

Signing an agreement without such assurances, Arakhamia argued, would leave Ukraine vulnerable to a potential second incursion because it would have given Russia an opportunity to regroup and prepare for another round of military aggression.

Russia offered to end its invasion of Ukraine if it dumped plans to join NATO, but Kyiv feared a double cross, says negotiator

A Russian delegation during 2022 peace talks told Ukraine to give up NATO ambitions to stop the conflict, but Ukraine feared a double cross.

www.google.com

 

[Samlee]

The Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 Agreements Were Testimony That Russia Wanted Peace But The Azov Neo Nazi Lobby and The Western Countries Screwed It

 

[CrazyZ]

With Zelensky in charge.....this will never happen. What's funny is that Zelensky is preventing democratic elections in Ukraine. He knows Ukrainians are exhausted and want a peace deal......he would lose the election. At this point he is a dictator.

 

[beijingwalker]

This war could have been avoidable if not for Ukraine's strong pro west and anti Russia stance, hundreds of thousands of lives shouldn't have been lost.

 

[beijingwalker]

Russia Offered to End War if Ukraine Dropped NATO Bid: Kyiv Official​

Nov 27, 2023 at 7:16 PM EST

Russia offered to end Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in the spring of 2022 if Ukraine agreed to drop its ambitions to join NATO, according to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's political party, who was present at peace negotiations.

David Arakhamia, leader of the Ukrainian political party Servant of the People, revealed part of the purported deal during an interview with Ukrainian journalist Natalia Moseychuk on Friday. The Kyiv official previously led the Ukrainian delegation that held peace talks with senior Russian officials in the months following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Both sides of the war have laid out conditions for a ceasefire in the conflict in recent months, but many war analysts doubt neither Zelensky nor Russian President Vladimir Putin currently has a serious urge to end the 21-month-long fight.

According to Arakhamia, however, there was a drafted peace agreement between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators early in the war. Arakhamia said that Moscow pledged to end the fighting if Ukraine's agreed to remain neutral and forego its bid to join NATO.

"They really hoped almost to the last that they would put the squeeze on us to sign such an agreement so that we would take neutrality," Arakhamia told Moseychuck, according to an English translation of his comments by the Kyiv Post. "It was the biggest thing for them."

"They were ready to end the war if we took...neutrality and made commitments that we would not join NATO. This was the key point," the Ukrainian official added.

Ukraine has aimed to become a member of NATO for decades, and in September 2022, Kyiv announced its bid for a fast-tracked membership in the military alliance. Russian officials have warned that fighting would only escalate if Ukraine was admitted into NATO, which would solidify Kyiv's alliances with Western countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.

Arakhamia said changing Ukraine's intentions to join NATO would require an amendment to the country's constitution since Kyiv's parliament voted to adopt an amendment in February 2019 that stated Ukraine's goal of becoming a member of both NATO and the European Union.

Arakhamia also said that Ukrainian officials did not trust Russia to uphold their end of the bargain.

"There is no, and there was no, trust in the Russians that they would do it. That could only be done if there were security guarantees," he told Moseychuck.

Elsewhere in the interview, Arakhamia brought up former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's surprise visit to Kyiv in April 2022. He said Johnson encouraged Ukraine to not "sign anything" with Russia and "just fight."

The Russian Embassy in the U.K. reacted to Arakhamia's interview in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday. The message put the blame on Johnson for interrupting negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

"In the Spring of 2022 Russian and Ukrainian delegations were on the verge of negotiating an end to the conflict, assuring Ukraine's military non-alignment and protection of rights of Russian speakers," the Russian Embassy's post read. "A text was on the table in Istanbul, almost ready to be signed."

"However, according to Arakhamia, during his visit to #Kiev Prime Minister @BorisJohnson pressured the Ukrainian side 'not to sign anything' and 'just keep on fighting,'" the X post continued. "Thus, evidently, with substantial #UK input, an off-ramp for a negotiated solution was missed—with tragic consequences for Ukrainian statehood, economy and population."

Reuters reported in September 2022 that people close to Kremlin leadership confirmed that Russian negotiators had struck a provisional deal with Kyiv that would keep Ukraine out of NATO, but Putin rejected the deal and continued with his invasion. Sources who spoke with Reuters said the Russian leader told his negotiations that the deal "did not go far enough and that he had expanded his objections to include annexing swathes of Ukrainian territory."

Russia currently occupies large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv has said that the war will not end unless the annexed territory is returned to Ukraine's control.

Zelensky said earlier this month that reaching an end to the war would require "the restoration of territorial integrity, rights and the freedom of citizens. Another stage of the war is the restoration of justice."

"The restoration of sovereignty is the main principle for ending the hot stage of the war," the Ukrainian president added. "Everything will end in peace."

Russia offered to end war if Ukraine dropped NATO bid: Kyiv official

David Arakhamia, leader of Ukraine's Servant of the People party, said that Kyiv did not trust Russia to uphold its end of the deal.

www.newsweek.com

 

[_killuminati_]

With Zelensky in charge.....this will never happen. What's funny is that Zelensky is preventing democratic elections in Ukraine. He knows Ukrainians are exhausted and want a peace deal......he would lose the election. At this point he is a dictator.

He is also a Jew.