Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, negotiators on both sides worked out a peace agreement. The warring parties agreed to hold talks until April 15, 2022. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the mediator. Die Welt journalists obtained a copy of the 17-page document.
According to the draft agreement, Kiev and Moscow have largely agreed on terms to end the war. However, many points remained open. They were to be negotiated privately by Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky in a meeting that never happened. After a promising summit in Istanbul, Moscow made further demands, which Kiev did not agree to.
Polish Ambassador to China on Peace Talks
Jakub Gumoch spoke about this. The politician was the head of the International Policy Office of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland from 2021 to 2023, and since 2023 he has been Poland's ambassador to Beijing.
“The talk in the Western media about peace in 2022 is very disturbing. This is the story I have been hearing for months. The Russians are spreading the word that the ban on talks with Zelensky is the reason. I recommend caution,” Kumoch wrote on the X website.
Kumoch said he recently “spoke with two senior representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, with whom I'm still friends, and I remember from those conversations. They were both talking about spin, and one did it very, very blatantly.”
Kumoch: A light bulb goes on for me
The diplomat insists that a story has been emerging in China recently that the deal was not reached because of Volodymyr Zelensky's fault. “It's coming to light because the Russians have been spreading this story in China for a long time: peace was close, but Zelensky forbade talks with us. The same signals about a similar cycle of Russians are coming from at least two major non-EU countries,” he says. A former ally of President Andrzej Duda.
Gumoch recalls that Poland was kept informed of their progress during the negotiations. “During the negotiation process, like a Russian pretender (if not a trap) from the beginning, Poland was informed about the status of the negotiations by Ukraine. And we accompanied every Ukrainian delegation passing through our country,” he wrote. He attached a document from the period to prove his claims.
Draft document on Ukraine's negotiations with Russia
“I'm also thinking about making this operation 'secret' and turning its 'discovery' into a big scoop. In 2022, no one hid that Russia and Ukraine held talks. I talked about it publicly then. Podoluk probably tweeted about it,” he concluded. Analysis by Jakub Kumoch.
What will be included in the peace agreement?
The agreement includes, among other things: Kiev will abandon its efforts to become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance and refrain from organizing military exercises with the participation of foreign troops and from participating in any armed conflicts. Also, guarantor countries would commit to support Kiev within a maximum of three days in the event of an “armed attack on Ukraine” as part of the right of self-defense enshrined in the UN Charter. This assistance may take the form of “collective action” by all or individual guarantor countries.
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