NYT leaks purported draft 2022 Russia-Ukraine treaty

A draft treaty negotiated between Russia and Ukraine in spring 2022 has been published by The New York Times SATURDAY.

The newspaper claims that the document comes from Ukrainian, Russian and European media.

Titled “Treaty on Permanent Neutrality and Security Guarantees for Ukraine,” the document cites the United Kingdom, China, Russia, the United States and France as guarantors of Ukraine's security as that permanently neutral state. However, the document indicates disagreement with Ukraine regarding the guarantor status of Belarus and with Russia regarding the guarantor status of Turkey.

“Ukraine is committed to supporting its permanent neutrality, which is declared and enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. The Guarantor States recognize, respect and guarantee the status of Ukraine as a permanently neutral State and s “commit to ensuring that this status is respected at the international level”, indicates article 1 of the draft.

Meanwhile, kyiv refused to negotiate clauses that would require designating the Russian language as the official language of Ukraine and banning propaganda or organizations promoting “ideas or theories of superiority of any race or a group of people of a certain skin color or ethnic or national origin, including the ideas of fascism, Nazism, neo-Nazism and aggressive nationalism. »

In addition, the draft emphasized that Ukraine refused to discuss articles regarding the reciprocal lifting of sanctions imposed since 2014, as well as the cessation of proceedings regarding interstate legal disputes with Russia.

At the same time, the parties agreed to exclude discussions on Crimea, Sevastopol and specific territories described in Annex 6 of the project, the details of which were not disclosed.

Putin sets conditions for Ukraine peace talks

In a statement released Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia was ready to begin negotiations with Ukraine under certain conditions.

In a meeting with top diplomats in Moscow, Putin announced Russia's latest concrete peace proposal to resolve the war in Ukraine. He stressed that if kyiv and Western capitals rejected this offer, as they have done in the past, they would bear political and moral responsibility for the ongoing violence.

Putin outlined the conditions of the proposed peace plan, saying Ukrainian forces must withdraw entirely from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

He clarified that the withdrawal should cover the entire territory of these regions within their original administrative borders before they became part of Ukraine. Once kyiv accepts these conditions and begins withdrawing its troops while formally renouncing its plans to join NATO, Russia will immediately cease fire and begin negotiations.

Putin also stressed that Russia is ready to begin negotiations with Ukraine as soon as possible, recognizing the complexities this entails: “We are ready to sit down at the negotiating table tomorrow, fully aware of the unique legal circumstances. Despite this, there are legitimate authorities, even according to their constitution, with whom we can negotiate.”

Dive Deeper

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson that negotiations with Ukraine in 2022 were almost complete. However, after the withdrawal of Russian troops from kyiv, the Ukrainian side reportedly rejected all agreements. Subsequently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky legally banned negotiations with Russia.

In November 2023, Ukraine's former lead negotiator with Russia, David Arakhamia, claimed that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had dissuaded kyiv from signing a deal with Moscow to resolve the conflict in spring 2022. Johnson said denied this allegation.