Full withdrawal from the four regions and rejection of NATO: Putin named the conditions for negotiations with Ukraine

Vladimir Putin at a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, screenshot

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine should declare its refusal to join NATO and withdraw troops from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

This is the condition for a ceasefire and the start of negotiations, as he stated at a meeting with representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Vladimir Putin emphasized that it is about the entire territory of these regions, and not only about the parts occupied by Russia at the moment. At the same time, he assures that a safe withdrawal of troops will be guaranteed for the Armed Forces.

«The conditions are very simple. Ukrainian troops must be completely withdrawn from Donetsk, Luhansk People's Republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. I draw attention to the entire territory of these regions within their administrative borders, which existed at the time of their entry into Ukraine. As soon as Kyiv declares that it is ready for such a decision and begins the real withdrawal of troops from these regions, as well as officially announces the rejection of plans to join NATO, from our side, literally at the same minute, an order will come to stop fire and start talks. I repeat, we will do it immediately. Of course, at the same time, we guarantee the unimpeded and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian units,» said Vladimir Putin.

We will remind you that in May 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again spoke about negotiations with Ukraine and said that they had never given up on them. He stated that Russia is ready to negotiate on the basis of the «Istanbul agreements».

Negotiations in Istanbul in 2022

Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul started on March 10, 2022. Then the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamiia, met with the head of the delegation from the Russian Federation, former Minister of Culture and Vladimir Putin's assistant, Volodymyr Medynskyi. After a round of negotiations, the representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced the partial withdrawal of the Russian military from Kyiv and Chernihiv. Also at that time, the Russian side announced Putin's readiness to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the event of a peace treaty. However, the contract was not signed.

The representative of the Russian side Volodymyr Medynskyi and David Arakhamiia, Istanbul, 2022

A number of politicians and political scientists believed that Ukraine then lost a chance to end the war.

In November 2023, David Arakhamia said that during the negotiations, the Russians promised to withdraw troops in exchange for Ukraine's refusal to join NATO. However, the Ukrainian side did not agree to this, as it was not sure that the Russian Federation would really withdraw from the territory of Ukraine.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation also stated in an interview with the 1+1 TV channel that this decision was influenced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who insisted on the continuation of the war:

«When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kyiv and said that we will not sign anything with them at all — and let's just fight.»

In June 2024, during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, in a comment to a NikVesti correspondent, David Arakhamiia said that he does not regret the conclusion of the negotiations in Istanbul in March 2022.