Timeline
Early negotiations (24 February to 7 April 2022)
Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff Dmitry Kozak said in 2022 that he had negotiated an agreement with Ukraine within a few days of the invasion. [39] This settlement would have ended hostilities in exchange for guarantees that Ukraine would not join NATO. The agreement was however blocked by Putin, who "expanded his objectives to include annexing swathes of Ukrainian territory". [40] A Kremlin spokesman denied the story. [39]
First round (28 February)
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko agreed on 27 February that a Ukrainian delegation would meet with Russian officials on the Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River, without preconditions. [41] It was reported that Lukashenko assured Zelenskyy that all planes, helicopters, and missiles on Belarusian territory would remain on the ground during the negotiations. [42]
Talks began on 28 February, near the Belarusian border. The Ukrainian president's office said that the main goals were to call for an immediate ceasefire, and for Russian troops to be withdrawn from Ukraine. [43] It concluded with no immediate agreements. [44]
Second round (3 March)
On 3 March, the second round of peace talks began. Both sides agreed to open humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians. [45] Russia's demands were Ukraine's recognition of Russian-occupied Crimea, independence for separatist-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk, and "de-militarisation" and "de-Nazification". Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that while his country was ready for talks to resume, Russia's demands had not changed. [24] [46]
On 5 March, Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow and held three hours of meetings with Putin, then flew to Germany and held meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Bennett spoke in advance with Zelenskyy, who had previously asked for his help mediating. He also coordinated with the US, France and Germany. [47] According to Al Monitor , the meetings were instigated by Scholz who made a brief visit to Israel on 3 March and held a long one-on-one meeting with Bennett, which produced the mediation idea. [48]
On 6 March, Ukrainian official Denys Kireyev was found dead after being accused of committing ‘treason’ and working for Russia. Barely a week after attending the first round of peace talks, images of Kireyev’s corpse began circulating. [49]
Third round (7 March)
A third round of negotiations began on 7 March, amidst ongoing fighting and bombing. [50] Dmitry Peskov restated Moscow's demands, that Ukraine should agree to change its constitution to enshrine neutrality, accept that the Crimea was Russian territory, and recognize Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states; he claimed that Russia was ready to halt military operations "in a moment" if Kyiv agreed to these conditions. [51] Although a deal had not been reached yet, Ukrainian negotiator and advisor to the president Mykhailo Podoliak tweeted that "there were some small positive shifts regarding logistics of humanitarian corridors." [3] [52] However, the day before, a Ukrainian negotiator was shot amid claims of spying for Russia. [53]
Antalya Diplomacy Forum (10 March)
On 10 March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba met for talks in Antalya, Turkey with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu as mediator, in the first high-level contact between the two sides since the beginning of the invasion. [5] Ukraine had attempted to negotiate a 24-hour ceasefire to provide aid and evacuation to civilians, especially in Mariupol. [54] After two hours of talks, no agreement was reached. [55] Airstrikes on the port city continued. [56]
Fourth round (14–17 March)
The fourth round of negotiations began on 14 March via video conference. The talks lasted a few hours and ended without a breakthrough. The two sides resumed talks on 15 March, [6] after which Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the talks as beginning to "sound more realistic". [58]
By 16 March, Mykhailo Podoliak was assigned as the chief negotiator for the Ukrainian peace delegation, who indicated that peace negotiations of a 15-point plan would involve the retraction of Russian forces from their advanced positions in Ukraine, along with international guarantees for military support and alliance in case of renewed Russian military action, in return for Ukraine not pursuing further affiliation with NATO. [59]
The two sides again resumed talks on 16 March. [58] Later that day, the Financial Times reported that a 15-point plan, first discussed on 14 March, negotiated with the Russians was being identified by Zelenskyy as more realistic for ending the war. [60] [61] After the fourth day of talks on 17 March, Russia said an agreement has not been reached. [62] Following the talks, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned that Russia was only "pretending to negotiate", in line with a strategy it has used elsewhere. [63]
On 20 March, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the mediator of the talks, described them as "making progress". Referring to his role as "an honest mediator and facilitator", he gave little further detail. [64]
Following his address to the Israeli parliament, Zelenskyy thanked Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett for his efforts in encouraging peace talks, and suggested that they might take place in Jerusalem. [65]
Fifth round (21 March)
The fifth round of talks, on 21 March, failed to achieve a breakthrough. Zelenskyy called for direct talks with Putin to end the war. [66] Sergey Lavrov said direct talks between the two presidents would only go ahead once both sides are closer to reaching a settlement. [67]
Renewal of peace talks: 29–30 March
On 28 March, Zelenskyy confirmed that a renewal of peace talk negotiations with Russia would start in Istanbul on 29 March, with the intention of discussing Ukrainian neutrality, along with the repudiation of any claims for Ukrainian NATO membership in the future. [68] On 29 March, Estonian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, indicated in agreement with French minister Le Drian that any Russian offers of peaceful negotiation about Ukraine, or withdrawal from Kyiv, should be regarded with diplomatic skepticism, based on a history of Russian unreliability in similar peace negotiations with other countries. [69] [63]
Ahead of the 29 March meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that Ukraine was ready to agree to 4 out of Russia's 6 demands. [70] He claimed Ukraine was prepared to renounce NATO membership and to make Russian Ukraine's second official language. [70] According to Erdoğan Ukraine was not prepared to recognise the Russian occupation of Crimea or parts of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts. [70] Ukraine proposed adopting a neutral status in exchange for security guarantees along the lines of NATO Article 5. The proposals also included a 15-year consultation period on the status of Russian-annexed Crimea and return of all Russian forces to their pre-invasion positions. [34] Russia's Ministry of Defense announced "drastic reduction of military activity" on the Kyiv and Chernihiv fronts, which, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky clarified, was not tantamount to a ceasefire. [71] [72] In a televised meeting with military bloggers on 13 June 2023 the Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia and Ukraine had come on that day to "a good agreement on how to resolve the current situation by peaceful means" but then the Ukrainians "threw it away" after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kyiv following the failed Russian 2022 offensive on Kyiv. [73] According to Putin, Ukraine had agreed to curb Neo-Nazism in Ukraine through the "introducing appropriate restrictions in the law in Ukraine", but this has failed to happen intentionally. [73] On 17 June 2023 Putin showed what he says was a draft agreement with Ukraine, which was discussed in Turkey late March 2022, during a meeting with an African delegation. [74] Putin claimed there were 18 articles, and "everything is spelled out, from combat equipment to the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine", and the document was according to Putin signed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. [75]
In June 2023, Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko claimed, in an interview with Russia-1, that Ukrainian and Russian delegations also discussed the possibility of "some sort of a lease" of Crimea during the March 2022 negotiations. [70] Oleksii Arestovych, a member of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks, also said that Russia was ready for a "political discussion" concerning Crimea. [76] Ukrainian lead negotiator (at this point) Davyd Arakhamia stated in an interview on 24 November 2023 that in March 2022 the Russian delegation had promised Ukraine peace for refusing to join NATO, but that Russia had not given any security guarantees and the Ukrainian delegation did not trust Russia to uphold such an agreement. [75] [77] [78] Arakhamia also refuted Putin's claim that Ukraine had signed any agreement in Turkey because the delegation did not even have the legal right to sign anything - this could only have happened if a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin took place. [75] Arakhamia also claimed that Russian delegation had only cared about Ukraine's neutral status and that the other Russian demands had been "cosmetic and political "seasoning" about denazification, the Russian-speaking population and blah blah blah." [75]
April 2022
On 7 April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the peace deal Ukraine drafted and presented to the Russian government contained "unacceptable" elements. Lavrov said that the proposal diverged from the terms negotiators had agreed on. Mykhaylo Podolyak, a negotiator for Ukraine, said that the comments from Lavrov are a tactic to draw attention away from the war crime accusations against Russian forces. Lastly, Lavrov stated, "Despite all the provocations, the Russian delegation will continue with the negotiation process, pressing for our own draft agreement that clearly and fully outlines our initial and key positions and requirements." [79]
According to a May report from Ukrainska Pravda , the Russian side was ready for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, but it later came to a halt after the discovery of War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in particular the Bucha massacre on 1 April. In a surprise visit to Ukraine on 9 April, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "Putin is a war criminal, he should be pressured, not negotiated with," and that the collective West was not willing to make a deal with Putin. Three days after Johnson left Kyiv, Putin stated publicly that talks with Ukraine "had turned into a dead end". Naftali Bennett said in 2023 that both sides had wanted a ceasefire, the odds of the deal holding had been 50-50, and that the Western powers backing Ukraine had stopped the deal. [80] Later he expressed doubts regarding the desirability of such a deal. [81] [82] Roman Abramovich visited Kyiv in an attempt to resume negotiations. Zelenskyy proposed negotiating two separate documents, one being a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Russia, and the other involving Ukraine and the West. [83] Ukrainian lead negotiator (at this point) Davyd Arakhamia stated in an interview on 24 November 2023 that the neutral status of Ukraine was the key Russian demand during the negotiations and that the western countries were aware of the negotiations and advised Ukraine not to rely on security guarantees. Arakhamia also denied that Johnson stopped Kyiv from signing an agreement stipulating Ukraine's neutrality saying that the Ukrainian delegation did not have the authority to do it. [75]
On 11 April, the Chancellor of Austria, Karl Nehammer, visited and spoke with Putin in Moscow in 'very direct, open and hard' talks which were skeptical of the short-term peaceful resolution of the invasion. [84] On 26 April, the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres visited Russia for the purpose of speaking with Putin and Lavrov in separate meetings. After the meetings, it was revealed that Putin and Lavrov were skeptical as to reaching any short term resolution of differences between Russia and Ukraine, largely due to very different respective perspectives on the circumstances of the invasion presently being adopted by each of the two nations. [85]
According to U.S. officials who spoke to Foreign Affairs, a provisional agreement was reached in April, whereby the Russian forces would withdraw to the pre-invasion line and Ukraine would commit not to seek to join NATO in exchange for security guarantees from a number of countries. However, in a July interview with Russian state media, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that this compromise was no longer an option, saying that even the Donbas was not enough and that the "geography had changed." [86]
Remainder of 2022
May 2022
On 13 May, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin initiated a telephone conversation with Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, the first call since 18 February, before the invasion. The call lasted about an hour with Austin urging an immediate ceasefire. [87] [88] On 15 May, Putin convened the Collective Security Treaty Organization, consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, and Belarus, to discuss issues of peace and border security related to Ukraine and NATO. [89]
President Zelenskyy denounced suggestions by former US diplomat Henry Kissinger that Ukraine should cede control of Crimea and Donbas to Russia in exchange for peace. [90] On 25 May, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would not agree to peace until Russia agreed to return Crimea and the Donbas region to Ukraine. [91] Zelenskyy stressed that "Ukrainians are not ready to give away their land, to accept that these territories belong to Russia." He emphasized that Ukrainians own the land of Ukraine. [92] As of September 2022 [update] . Kissinger changed his initial suggestion and presented it at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2023, where he announced that NATO membership for Ukraine would be an “appropriate outcome” from his perspective. [93]
September 2022
The 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive was a successful Ukrainian major counteroffensive that began on 6 September 2022.
In September, Ukraine rejected a peace plan proposed by Mexico. [94] On 21 September, Zelenskyy addressed the UN General Assembly with a pre-recorded video, laying out five "non-negotiable" conditions for a "peace formula", comprising "just punishment" of Russia for its crimes committed against Ukraine, protection of life by "all available means allowed by the UN charter", restoring security and territorial integrity, security guarantees from other countries, and determination for Ukraine to continue defending itself. [95] [96] Speaking to Bild , Zelenskyy stated that he saw little chance of holding talks with Putin unless Russia withdrew its forces from Ukrainian territory. [97]
Following Putin's announcement of Russia annexing four regions of Ukrainian territory it had seized during its invasion, Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine would not hold peace talks with Russia while Putin was president. [98] Zelenskyy signed a presidential decree declaring that negotiations with Putin were "impossible", endorsing the decision of the Ukrainian National Security Council. [99] This was a response to Russia's annexation. [100]
October 2022
Following the October 2022 missile strikes on Ukraine, China and India, who had abstained from condemning Russia at the UN, expressed concern and called for de-escalation and dialogue. [101] Turkish President Erdogan expressed some hope for a diplomatic resolution, saying that Putin "is now more open to possible peace talks" and that Kyiv "was not rejecting such peace talks." [102] The Russian government announced it was ready for a renewed dialogue, and indeed had always been open to negotiating an end to hostilities. [103] The Ukrainian leadership responded that it did not believe Russia was truly committed to peace, and was simply hoping to stall for time while rebuilding its military capabilities for future offensives. [8]
On 3 October 2022, Elon Musk floated a controversial proposal on Twitter, arguing that Ukraine should permanently cede Crimea to Russia, which would be assured of its water supply from Ukraine, and that Ukraine should drop its bid to join NATO. [104] The four-part proposal, posted as a Twitter poll, suggested new referendums under UN supervision on the annexation of Russian-occupied territories. [105] The proposal was welcomed by the Russian government and rebuked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "pro-Russia". [106] [107] [108]
November 2022
In a video address from 7 November, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy named conditions for negotiating with Russia: "One more time: restoration of territorial integrity, respect for the U.N. charter, compensation for all material losses caused by the war, punishment for every war criminal and guarantees that this does not happen again." [109] [110] US Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley urged Ukraine and Russia to find a "political solution", saying that the war in Ukraine is unwinnable by purely military means. [111] [112] The detailed 10-point peace proposal was published later in November at a G20 meeting. [113] [114]
December 2022
In a December 2022 interview with the Associated Press, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for a February 2023 peace summit at the UN mediated by secretary-general António Guterres. He stated that Ukraine would only invite Russia if the country faced an international court for war crimes. [115]
Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that any peace plan can only proceed from Ukraine's recognition of Russia's sovereignty over the regions it annexed from Ukraine in September 2022. [28]
On 28 December 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that peace talks with Ukraine would only resume if it recognized Russia's sovereignty over the annexed and partially occupied regions. [116]
2023
January 2023
In January 2023, Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that "there is currently no prospect for diplomatic means of settling the situation around Ukraine." [118]
March 2023
On 14 March 2023, Peskov said "We have to achieve our goals. Right now this is only possible by military means due to the current position of the Kyiv regime." [119]
April 2023
Andrii Sybiha, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, told the Financial Times: "If we will succeed in achieving our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we will be on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open [a] diplomatic page to discuss this issue." [121] The official position of the Ukrainian government is that the return of Crimea is non-negotiable. In early April 2023 Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak called for Russia to compensate Ukraine and answer for war crimes. [122] Podolyak said Crimea should be re-taken and its new Russian inhabitants expelled. [122] At the same time, Anatol Lieven reported that some Ukrainian government officials suggested Ukraine could exchange Crimea for peace. [122]
In April 2023, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva suggested that Ukraine should "give up Crimea" to end the war, saying Zelenskyy "can not want everything". [123] Lula condemned Russia's violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and said Russia should withdraw from Ukrainian territory it has occupied since February 2022. [124] He said Brazil advocates a "negotiated political solution to the conflict" and expressed "concern" about the "global consequences" of the war "in terms of food and energy security, especially in the poorest regions of the planet." [125] Ukraine rejected his proposal to give up Crimea in exchange for peace. [126]
Lula proposed the creation of a "peace club" from a group of developing countries, including Brazil and China, which would try to negotiate peace in Ukraine. [120] Lula’s foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim said that "[a]s long as there are no talks, the ideal peace for the Ukrainians and the Russians will not happen. There must be concessions." [125] Lula declared after a state visit to China that "the United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace". U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded by accusing Lula of "parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda", describing his comments as "simply misguided" and "suggesting the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace, or that we share responsibility for the war". [127]
On 6 April 2023, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said about a possible peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, which would freeze the conflict and leave the annexed territories of Ukraine, including Crimea, in Russia's possession, that "If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposes peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, he will commit political suicide." [122]
On 7 April 2023, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia rejects the "unipolar world order" led by the United States and wants any peace talks with Ukraine to focus on creating a "new world order." [29] On 30 April, Pope Francis announced that the Vatican is taking part in a secret "peace mission" to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. [128]
May 2023
In May 2023, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said peace negotiations to end the Russo-Ukrainian War were "not possible at this moment", saying it was clear that Russia and Ukraine "are completely absorbed in this war" and "are convinced that they can win." [129]
On 16 May, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the leaders of African countries came up with a new initiative for peace in Ukraine. [130]
On 22 May, Denmark foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the country was willing to host a summit in July 2023 aimed at "finding peace between Ukraine and Russia" adding that "it is necessary to build interest and involvement from countries like India, Brazil and China." [131]
On 22 May, Brazilian President Lula da Silva said that the countries of the Global South, including Brazil, India, Indonesia and China "want peace", but both Putin and Zelenskyy "are convinced that they are going to win the war" and do not want to talk about peace, so the war could be very long. [132]
June 2023
On 3 June, Indonesia's defense minister Prabowo Subianto proposed a multi-point peace plan including a ceasefire and establishing a demilitarised zone observed and monitored by the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. [133] He said that a UN referendum should be held "to ascertain objectively the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants of the various disputed areas". [134] Prabowo's proposal was criticised by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. [135]
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that the peace plans presented by China, Brazil and Indonesia are attempts at mediation on behalf of Russia, saying that "they all currently want to be mediators on Russia's side. That's why this sort of mediation currently doesn't fit for us at all because they aren't impartial." [136] Reznikov said that Ukraine is willing to accept China as a mediator for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine only if Beijing could convince Russia to withdraw from all the territories it has occupied in Ukraine. [137]
In June, a delegation from Africa, including representatives from South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Comoros, Zambia, and Uganda, visited Ukraine and Russia to call for peace. [138] Both Russia and Ukraine welcomed the African leaders' mission, but Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned that "Any peace initiative should respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine, it should not imply, even in-between the lines, any cessation of Ukrainian territory to Russia. Second, any peace plan should not lead to the freezing of the conflict." [139] After a meeting with African leaders in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that peace talks with Russia would be possible only after Moscow withdraws its forces from the entire occupied territory. [140] The African delegation was in Kyiv during a Russian missile strike on the city. [141]
On 17 June, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and other African leaders met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. Ramaphosa told Putin that the war must end. [142] Putin rejected the delegation's peace plan based on accepting Ukraine's internationally recognized borders. [143]
July 2023
On 29 July, following a meeting with African leaders at the 2023 Russia–Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a ceasefire and peace talks with Ukraine due to the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces in Russia-occupied southeastern Ukraine, saying "We cannot cease fire when we are under attack." [144]
August 2023
On 5 and 6 August 2023 Saudi Arabia hosted multinational peace talks attended by 40 countries (including China) in Jeddah focusing on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's proposed peace plan. [145] [146] Russia did not participate in the talks. [145] Prior to the summit Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said there would be discussions on the Ukrainian Peace Formula, which "contains 10 fundamental points, the implementation of which will not only ensure peace for Ukraine, but also create mechanisms to counter future conflicts in the world". [147] After the summit no joint statement was issued. [145] The participants did agree to create working groups to develop details of key themes prominent in Zelenskyy's proposed peace plan (that calls for Russian troops to withdraw from all of Ukraine’s territory as part of a peace deal) while a parallel ambassadors group would continue technical work on the issues. [145]
September 2023
On 27 September 2023, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with TASS that Russia was "ready to make agreements" on Ukraine if they would "take the situation on the ground" and Russian security interests into account. [148] According to Lavrov one of the Russian security interest was "the need to prevent the creation of a hostile Nazi regime near Russian borders." [148] Lavrov also said that Russia did not see "any serious proposals from the West" and he argued that they were promoting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‘peace formula’ as "the sole basis for negotiations" and that there was "no point in discussing it as it is nothing but an ultimatum." [148] Lavrov also praised the June 2023 African, Arab League (although formally the Arab League never submitted its own peace proposal [145] ), Chinese, Brazilian and peace proposals "from other countries" since he claimed "All of them were guided by a sincere desire to facilitate an agreement, which would consider the root causes of the current situation and the need to eliminate them, and will also ensure equal security for all parties." [148]
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said that sending more and more weapons to Ukraine has only encouraged more killings and endless war, and instead efforts should be made to reach a cease-fire and push Russia and Ukraine toward peace talks. In September 2023, he stated in an interview: "Why don't we force the warring parties, use the weight of the EU and the U.S. to make them sit down and find some sort of compromise that would guarantee security for Ukraine?" [149] [150] He praised the peace plans to end the war put forward by the Vatican, Brazil and China. [151] Fico said his government would do everything possible to start peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. [152]
October 2023
NBC News reported that officials at the 11 October 2023 Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting began confidential and delicate talks with the Ukrainian officials about what the broad outlines of possible peace negotiations might entail, according to two U.S. participants. [153]
November 2023
On 6 November 2023, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy rejected peace talks with Russia. He told NBC television: "I am not ready to speak with the terrorists, because their word is nothing. They have to go out from our territory, only after that, the world can switch on diplomacy." [154]
On 10 November 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron said that what Russia is doing in Ukraine is "imperialism and colonialism" and it was the "duty" of France and other countries to help Ukraine defend itself, but added that maybe the time will come to hold fair peace negotiations and find a solution with Russia. [155]
On 22 November 2023, Putin claimed that Russia was always "ready for talks" to end the "tragedy" of the war in Ukraine, and accused the Ukrainian leadership of rejecting peace talks with Russia. [156]
December 2023
On 1 December 2023, a tenth working meeting with representatives of 83 states and three international organizations on the implementation of the Ukraine's Peace Formula was held in Kyiv, Ukraine. [157]
In the 15 December 2023 annual press conference Direct Line with Vladimir Putin Russian President Putin stated “there will only be peace in Ukraine when we achieve our aims”; those "objectives do not change", he said, listing "denazification, demilitarisation and its neutral status". [158] About the September 2022 Russian annexed territories of Ukraine Putin said in the press conference that a budget allocated more than a trillion rubles ($11.15 billion) annually for the development of these (in his words) “new regions” and their “integration into the economic and social life” of Russia; he stated that "Of course, in Russia’s other regions, the situation is fundamentally better, because the authorities in Kyiv “did not give these regions the attention they were due.” [159]
On 23 December 2023, The New York Times reported that Putin has been signaling through intermediaries since at least September 2022 that "he is open to a ceasefire that freezes the fighting along the current lines." [160] [161] The New York Times cited U.S. and international officials who received the message from Putin’s envoys and two former senior Russian officials close to the Kremlin. [161] A former senior Russian official told The New York Times that Putin "is willing to stop at the current positions" but is "not willing to retreat one meter." [162]
2024
January 2024
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said he does not feel pressure from allies to agree a ceasefire with Russia. [163] He warned that "any frozen conflict will eventually reignite". [164]
February 2024
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Putin said he is ready to negotiate with Zelenskyy, who had previously declared that he would never negotiate with Putin. Putin urged him to reverse that decision. According to Latvia-based Russian journalist Leonid Ragozin, "Putin's endgame appears to be getting an agreement along the lines of what has been tentatively achieved in Istanbul, but this time with all the territories which Russia occupied and formally annexed after these talks fell through. The implied threat is that Ukraine will lose even more territory – not to mention lives and infrastructure – should it keep being stubborn." [165] Putin said "We haven't achieved our [war] aims yet because one of them is denazification". According to Putin, "This means the prohibition of all kinds of neo-Nazi movements." [166] Putin did not mention in the interview that he would have conditions for peace negotiations, such as the removal of Zelenskyy's government. [167] When Carlson asked whether Putin would "be satisfied" with the territory that Russia currently occupies, Putin avoided the question and referred to his previous answer. [168]
According to Russian sources, the United States rejected Putin's proposal for a ceasefire, which reportedly was to freeze the conflict at the current frontlines and for Russia to keep the land it occupied. A US source denied there had been any official contact and said the US would not engage in talks without Ukraine. [169] [170]
On 14 February 2024, the Kremlin denied reports that Putin had secretly proposed a ceasefire. [171]
March 2024
Putin's alleged secret offers to stop the fighting have contradicted what he and some members of his regime have been saying publicly. [161] On 4 March 2024, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council chaired by Putin, made a speech in which he ruled out peace talks with Ukraine's current leadership. He said any future Ukrainian government that wanted talks would need to accept the Russian occupation. Medvedev described Ukraine as part of Russia, [172] and spoke in front of a large map showing Russia in control of most of the country, with western Ukraine partitioned between Poland, Hungary and Romania. [173]
Pope Francis said in an interview that Ukraine should not be ashamed to talk to Putin "before things get worse", as "the word negotiate is a courageous word", adding that "When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate. Negotiations are never a surrender." Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski responded on X: "How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations." [174]
On 13 March 2024, Vladimir Putin said that "To negotiate just because they (Ukraine) are running out of ammunition is somehow ridiculous on our part. We are, however, ready for a serious conversation, and we want to resolve all conflicts, especially this conflict, through peaceful means. But we must clearly understand that it shouldn't be a break for the enemy to rearm but a serious talk involving security guarantees for the Russian Federation." [175] Responding to Putin's words, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's spokesman said that Putin "can end this war immediately at any time by canceling his (military) campaign, withdrawing his troops (from Ukraine), and going to the negotiating table." [175]
May 2024
In May 2024, four Russian sources told Reuters that Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine and freeze the conflict on the current front lines. The sources said Putin believed the West was trying to derail the ceasefire talks. [176] Ukraine said Putin's claims are aimed at undermining the Ukraine peace summit in June. [177]
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto expressed opposition to further escalation and stressed the need to "leave open the possibility of negotiating an immediate truce and initiating peace talks in the coming months." [178]
On 24 May 2024, China and Brazil jointly presented a new six-point peace plan. [179] The six-point proposal called for an international peace conference "held at a proper time that is recognised by both Russia and Ukraine, with equal participation of all parties as well as fair discussion of all peace plans." [180]
June 2024
In a speech on 14 June 2024, Putin outlined Russia's terms for a ceasefire. He said that Russia would not negotiate unless Ukraine handed over the provinces of Ukraine claimed by Russia: all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, including the parts Russia does not control. [181] [nb 1] Furthermore, he said that Ukraine had to abandon plans to join NATO, become a neutral country, and never seek to develop nuclear weapons. Putin added that the rights of Russian-speakers in Ukraine must be respected and that sanctions against Russia must be lifted to ensure peace. [181] [nb 2] He claimed that the proposal "is not about freezing the conflict but about its final resolution", and said that if turned down by Ukraine and its allies, then it would be "their political and moral responsibility for continuing the bloodshed". [181] Later that day, President Zelenskyy told Sky TG24 television: "These messages are ultimatum messages. It's the same thing Hitler did, when he said 'give me a part of Czechoslovakia and it'll end here'." [181]
Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg and Frederick H. Fleitz, who both served in Trump’s National Security Council staff, presented presidential candidate Donald Trump with a detailed plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine. The plan proposes a ceasefire on the current front lines, forcing both Russia and Ukraine into peace talks, and continued arms supplies to Ukraine if it agrees to a ceasefire and peace talks. If Russia did not agree to a ceasefire and peace talks, the United States would increase arms supplies to Ukraine. Ukraine would not have to formally cede the occupied and annexed territories to Russia, but would postpone its plans for NATO membership for a longer period of time, and the territories currently under Russian occupation would remain under Russian control. Kellogg told Reuters: "Our concern is that this has become a war of attrition that’s going to kill a whole generation of young men." [182] [183]
July 2024
On 2 July 2024 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Ukraine, on 5 July proceeding to Russia and on 8 July to China as a self-appointed mediator for ending the war in what he called "peace mission 3.0." [184]
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of the Putin-led Security Council of Russia, who has routinely threatened to do terrible things to all of Russia's enemies, said on his Telegram channel that Russia would eventually annex the rest of Ukraine even if it agrees to Putin's ceasefire demands. [185]
August 2024
President Zelenskyy's adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that one of the goals of the invasion of the Kursk region in Russia in August 2024 was to force Russia into fair peace negotiations. [186] He wrote on Telegram: "We need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia. In the Kursk region, we clearly see how the military tool is objectively used to convince the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process." [187] Kremlin-connected political analyst Sergei Markov said that "Putin has said many times that any peace agreement should take into account the facts on the ground and that Russia will not leave the territory it has taken" and Ukraine is trying "to break this formula and gain Russian territory to exchange." [188]
On 17 August, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous diplomatic sources, that Ukraine's incursion into Russia disrupted plans for indirect talks in Doha, Qatar to halt mutual strikes on energy infrastructure in Ukraine and Russia. Both Ukraine and Russia had reportedly planned to send their delegations to indirect talks mediated by Qatari officials, but Russian officials postponed the meeting in the wake of Ukraine's incursion. Some officials had hoped it could be the first step toward a more comprehensive peace deal. [188] The United States declined to comment. [188] Ukrainian officials told The Washington Post that the indirect talks in Doha had been postponed "due to the situation in the Middle East", [188] but later declined to comment. [189] Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that there were "no direct or indirect negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on the safety of civilian critical infrastructure facilities." Zakharova referred to Putin, who said on August 12 that there could be no negotiations with Ukraine after the ground assault on the Kursk region and what he described as attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure. [189] A Russian academic with close ties to senior Russian diplomats said that Putin probably lost interest in further talks in Qatar because the "Russian leadership usually does not make any compromises under pressure" and attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure are a highly effective tactic, adding that Russia is more interested in talks with Ukraine about a broader ceasefire. [188]
