All news

Russia-Ukraine settlement talks must be based on 2022 Istanbul agreements — diplomat

"The Russian side is open to realistic proposals and is ready for substantial negotiations," Alexey Polishchuk said

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. Russia is ready for substantial negotiations on the Ukrainian conflict settlement based on the 2022 Istanbul agreements, Alexey Polishchuk, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second CIS Department, told TASS on Tuesday.

The diplomat noted that in order to launch the negotiations it is necessary to resolve the legal aspects of the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his decree that banned Kiev’s negotiations with Moscow.

"The Russian side is open to realistic proposals and is ready for substantial negotiations," Polishchuk said in an interview with TASS.

"It has been repeatedly noted that a peaceful settlement is possible on the basis of the 2022 Istanbul agreement, which referred to the neutral non-aligned nuclear free status of Ukraine, its demilitarization and denazification, the non-deployment of foreign troops and bases on its soil, considering modern territorial realities and the eradication of all root causes that led to the Ukrainian crisis," he said.

"Moreover, all legal aspects regarding Zelensky's illegitimacy and his decree banning bilateral talks must be resolved before the negotiations could be launched," the diplomat added.

The first Russian-Ukrainian talks after the beginning of the special military operation were held in early March 2022 in Belarus but yielded no results. Another round of talks was held in Istanbul in late March 2022 when Moscow received a document from Kiev about the conditions for a potential agreement. It included Ukraine’s obligations to observe a neutral, off-bloc status and not to deploy foreign weapons, including nuclear, on its territory.

Following this, Russia withdrew its troops in the Kiev and Chernigov areas but, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kiev backed out of the agreements and the talks were frozen. As Ukraine’s chief negotiator David Arakhamia said later that it was former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who prohibited Kiev from signing peace agreements with Russia and demanded that Ukraine continue military activities against Russia.