Ukraine Rejected 2022 Peace Deal Over Russian Language Status & 'Banning Nazism' Terms - Welt

After the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, delegations representing Moscow and Kiev engaged in several rounds of peace talks, including in Turkiye in March 2022. However, it was revealed in 2023 that former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had urged Kiev to avoid signing any agreements with Russia and instead focus on continuing the proxy fight.

Russia and Ukraine were closer than ever to concluding a peace treaty in April 2022, but the Kiev regime rejected several of Moscow’s demands outright, German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag revealed.

Specifically, terms regarding the status of the Russian language, and Kiev’s official rejection of Nazism were seen as unpalatable by the regime led by Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the 17-page draft peace treaty between the sides obtained by Welt.

It follows from the draft, agreed during negotiations in Turkiye on April 15, 2022, that Moscow and Kiev reached an agreement on the basic conditions for ending the conflict, but there were some unresolved issues that were to be discussed personally by President Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky in the same month. That summit was never to take place.

“Countless lives” could have been spared if this “advantageous” deal had been concluded, the outlet stated.

Since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation, Ukraine’s military has lost almost 500,000 people, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated on April 23.

Welt cited a member of the former Ukrainian negotiating team as calling it, in hindsight, “the best deal we could have had."

❗️For the first time Lavrov revealed some of the points of the Istanbul agreement with Ukraine.

According to one of them, the fifth article of NATO was applied to Ukraine, but without extending it to Crimea and Donbass. If these territories were attacked, the agreements should… pic.twitter.com/NmnORxJcZd

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) April 19, 2024

NATO Off the Table

First of all, in line with Article 1 of the draft treaty, Ukraine committed itself to "permanent neutrality." Thus, Kiev was to abandon ambitions of membership in a military alliance, including NATO. The ensuing 13 sub-points of the first article outline the extensive definition of neutrality.

Ukraine agreed never to "receive, produce, or acquire nuclear weapons," not to allow foreign weapons or troops on its soil, and not to provide its military infrastructure, including airports and seaports, to any other country.

Furthermore, in line with the draft, Kiev renounced holding military exercises with foreign participation and partaking in any military conflicts. However, EU membership for Kiev was explicitly not hindered, according to Article 3 of the document.

Security Guarantees

Article 5 of the draft treaty had outlined comprehensive security guarantees that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, UK, France, China, and Russia - could provide for Ukraine. In the event of a conflict, the guarantor states would commit to supporting Kiev’s self-defense within a maximum of three days, as enshrined in the UN Charter. This assistance could take the form of "joint action" by all or individual guarantor powers. According to Article 15, this treaty was supposed to be ratified in each signatory state to ensure legal validity. The article notes that one of the difficulties regarding this issue was the requirement for the consent of all guarantor states, which meant Russia could resort to a veto. At the same time, a number of Western states, including the US, UK, and France, promised support to Kiev, but refused to guarantee it.

Territorial Issues

Regarding territorial issues, parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Donbass would remain under Russian control, the Welt-cited draft treaty stated, and Ukraine’s "security guarantees" would not extend to Crimea and the port of Sevastopol.

The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that toppled legitimate President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The Crimean Peninsula and the federal city of Sevastopol became part of Russia after a referendum on March 16, 2014, in which the majority of residents voted to become part of the country.

The future size of the Ukrainian Armed Forces remained unresolved, too. According to “Appendix 1,” Moscow ostensibly wanted Kiev to slash the size of its army to 85,000 people, while Ukraine insisted on retaining a strength of 250,000 . There were also disagreements over the amount of military equipment that should remain in the arsenal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The publication noted that from Article 18 of the draft agreement it followed that the parties expected the presidents of the two countries to sign the deal in April 2022.

However, after a "promising" summit in Istanbul, Moscow put forward subsequent demands, which Kiev did not agree to, the outlet said, adding that they were "marked in italics in the document." Russia demanded that Russian be made the second official language in Ukraine, that mutual sanctions be lifted, and lawsuits in international courts be stopped. Kiev was also to officially ban "fascism, Nazism and aggressive nationalism,” the newspaper writes.

One of the stated goals of Russia’s special military operation is de-Nazification of Ukraine. As for the Russian language, the day after the unconstitutional Western-sponsored coup in 2014, the new authorities repealed a law granting it official status in regions where it was native to at least 10 percent of the population. This was met with protests in the east of the country, where the Russian-speaking population predominated, especially in the Donbass.

West Torpedoed Negotiations

It is no secret that the West sabotaged any possible peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine. Last year, senior Ukrainian lawmaker David Arakhamia, the former chief negotiator with Russia, claimed in an interview with a Ukrainian TV channel that then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the one who convinced Kiev in 2022 not to negotiate with Moscow and carry on fighting instead.

"When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kiev and said that we would not sign anything with [the Russians] at all. And [said] ‘let’s just continue fighting’," Arakhamia argued.

The lawmaker also claimed that Ukraine rejected the ceasefire deal due to it contradicting the country’s constitution's clause on Kiev’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

Efforts to achieve a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine were thwarted by Johnson at the behest of the United States, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin said in February, adding:

"He [Johnson] blocked the peace efforts with Washington's blessing, obviously, because he could not do it on his own accord. He arrived there, and the document, which had already been initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation, [David] Arakhamia, was thrown into the wastebasket, and Ukraine started fighting. These are the consequences of what the [former] prime minister of the United Kingdom did," Kelin said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster TRT World.

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson that negotiations with Ukraine in 2022 were nearly finalized. However, after Russian troops withdrew from Kiev, the Ukrainian side disregarded all agreements and Zelensky went as far as prohibiting negotiations with Russia through a legislative decree.

Putin has emphasized on numerous occasions that Moscow has never rejected negotiations, while also voicing uncertainty regarding whether the West wants a peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian conflict.