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Radio Svoboda: During negotiations with Ukraine in 2022, Russia demanded to reduce army, give up regions

The draft agreement proposed by Russia meant actual surrender. 

Radio Svoboda: During negotiations with Ukraine in 2022, Russia demanded to reduce army, give up regions
On 28 February, the Ukrainian delegation with representatives of the Russian Federation in the area of the Ukrainian-Belorussian
Photo: Zelenskyy’s team

According to Radio Svoboda, in the first days of the full-scale invasion, Russia offered Ukraine an agreement that would have effectively meant Ukraine's surrender. The journalists received the draft agreement from a Ukrainian source "familiar with the negotiations", and a Russian source "close to the negotiations confirmed its authenticity".

The draft, titled "Agreement on the Settlement of the Situation in Ukraine and the Neutrality of Ukraine", is dated 7 March, meaning that it was drawn up a week after the start of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. It was created by the Kremlin and handed over during the third round of talks in Belarus.

"If the Ukrainian government had accepted these conditions, it would have turned Ukraine into a puppet state with a fictitious neutral status, a tiny toothless army, no protection from NATO countries and no chance to regain control of Crimea or Donbas, and it would have had to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions as a whole, as well as large areas that were still under Kyiv's control at the time," the article says.

The draft agreement had six pages and four pages of annexes. The Russians included 18 articles on various areas of life: from the parameters of Ukraine's neutrality to history, religion and language. They also specified the obligation to lift sanctions. The Kremlin wanted to reduce the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to 50,000, of which only 1,500 should be officers. The invaders also decided to set limits on the number of weapons for Ukraine, for example, they wanted to leave only 300 tanks, four ships, and 55 helicopters.

Russia also wanted to prohibit the development, purchase and deployment of missile weapons with a range of more than 250 km, and it reserved the right to ban any other types of weapons from Ukraine.

According to the Russian plan, Ukraine was also supposed to give up the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions in their entirety. But at the same time, the destruction in these Regions caused by the Russian invasion was to be repaired at Ukrainian expense.

The Kremlin also wanted to grant Russian the status of an official language and restore the property rights of the Moscow Patriarchate Church. At the same time, Russian troops would remain on the territory of Ukraine.

As the war progressed, the negotiating points changed: Russia no longer demanded a reduction of its army to 50,000, but offered 85,000. Ukraine insisted on 250,000, which was roughly the number before the full-scale war.

The status of Crimea was to be discussed in further negotiations.

  • At the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukraine and Russia held talks, but later the Ukrainian side abandoned them because of the inability to reach an agreement with Russians. The countries that hosted the talks were Belarus and Turkey. 
  • Details of the draft agreements have appeared in the press before. The Wall Street Journal wrote that Russia demanded that Ukraine establish a neutral status and that control over Crimea be assigned to the Russians. 
  • Ukraine has rejected the possibility of negotiations with Vladimir Putin and said that negotiations to end the war can only take place in accordance with the Ukrainian peace formula. Recently, President Zelenskyy said that if global parties want to, they can invite Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, but he does not want to do so himself. 
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