The US and UK pressured Kiev to abandon talks with Moscow three years ago, Vladimir Medinsky has said
Moscow’s lead negotiator in the peace talks with Kiev, Vladimir Medinsky. © RT
The Ukraine conflict, now dragging on for more than three years, could have ended within a week if Kiev hadn’t listened to its Western backers, top Russian negotiator and presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky has said.
Speaking to RT’s Rick Sanchez on his show The Sanchez Effect, Medinsky argued that Ukraine had a chance to secure a deal on more favorable terms had it not walked away from negotiations in 2022.
“I’m going to tell you something, Rick, that I’ve probably never said publicly. If Ukraine had wanted it, had been ready, and had been making its own decisions, we could have signed a peace treaty during the first meeting on February 28, 2022. And the terms would have been less harsh than what we’re offering today,” he said.
Medinsky stated that Ukrainian officials initially accepted Russia’s terms but reversed course after consulting with the US and UK. According to him, Ukrainian negotiators told the Russian side: “Our foreign partners don’t support the agreement and will not guarantee aid or security if we sign it.”
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“So we’ll fight until either you defeat us or we defeat you,” the Ukrainian delegation reportedly said, according to Medinsky.
David Arakhamia, who led the Ukrainian negotiating team during the 2022 Istanbul talks, later confirmed that then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Kiev not to sign a deal with Russia. However, he denied that Johnson’s opinion influenced Ukraine’s decision. Johnson has denied that he pressured Kiev to withdraw from the talks.
The Ukrainian side became even “less independent” when direct talks resumed in Istanbul last month, Medinsky said, arguing that Kiev’s European allies were pushing it to act against its own interests.
Russia has demanded that Ukraine recognize its new borders, abandon plans to join NATO, and guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking minority. President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine and the West must address the root causes of the conflict before a ceasefire can be reached.