When Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he was ready to negotiate with Vladimir Putin to end the war. But this is not the first time that the Ukrainian leader has tried to ngociate.
It was almost three years ago. February 28, 2022 precisely. Only four days after the start of the massive invasion of Ukraine by the forces of Moscow.
While thousands of Ukrainians fled the country and the Russian army was fast facing Kyiv, Ukrainian and Russian officials met for the very first time to try to end the war.
The delegations have seen each other on the border with the Bélarus, the main ally of Moscow, via the “mediation” of the Bélarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
“We had agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet the Russian delegation without prerequisites at the border between Ukraine and Belarus, near the Pripyat River”recalls Volodymyr Zelensky. Kyiv then asked for an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of the Russian forces. At that time, Moscow had not revealed its objective in negotiation. Another certainty: Zelenskyy and Putin had not participated in person in the negotiations.
In total, three cycles of face-to-face negotiations will take place in Bélarus. On this date, the Russian forces already occupied the cities around the Ukrainian capital and began their alleged atrocities against the population of Hostomel, Irpin and Boutcha.
When the Moscow forces were finally pushed out of the Kyiv region, some of the most flagrant photographic and video evidence of Russian brutality in Ukraine appeared in the light, throwing trouble on the start of the negotiation process.
During a visit to Boutcha at the beginning of April 2022, where civilians were found in the streets, tied up and slaughtered at close range by Russian troops before their withdrawal, Volodymyr Zelensky declared: “It’s a real genocide, what you saw here”.
However, and while Kyiv began to instruct war crimes inquiries, after the discovery of the first Russian torture mass graves and chambers of torture, the Ukrainian President assured that peace talks would continue with Moscow “Because Ukraine must have peace”.
“We are in Europe in the 21st century. We will continue our diplomatic and military efforts”, had he pointed out while admitting that he was “Very difficult to speak when we see what they did here”.
Ukraine prohibits discussions with Putin
A few months later, in September 2022, Vladimir Putin announced the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian territories- the regions of Donetsk, Louhansk, Zaporijjia and Kherson who became “Russian territories”.
It was this event that precipitated the end of negotiations with Moscow, according to a decision of the National Security and Defense Council (CDSN) of Ukraine that prohibited any direct negotiation with Vladimir Putin. A ban that is still in force today.
Last January, President Zelensky explained that this ban had been introduced to put an end to separatismbecause “The Russians were trying to put pressure on Ukraine through many different corridors that Ukraine could not control.”
“Regarding the question of whether we can speak (with Putin) or not (and) the decision of the National Security and Defense Council, why did I sign this decree? Because Putin had started very quickly to establish A large number of different channels, in collaboration with separatists and civil servants from other states, in order to influence Ukraine, our independence and myself directly “explained the president.
“There were a lot of obscure political conversations and corridors. I quickly ended all this. I simply ended separatism in our country by prohibiting anyone – any Ukrainian political personality – to carry out negotiations With the Russian part, with Putin supporters, during the war “he concluded.
The decision indicates that the CDSN has decided to “declare the impossibility of holding talks with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin”. She did not specify who was prohibited from maintenance but Mr. Zelensky then stressed that he was the only one who could negotiate: “I am the president of Ukraine, I lead all the negotiations and I forbid all the others to do so.”
ADVERTISEMENTThe Russian authorities then criticized this decision several times and asked that it be reconsidered.
Poutine recently used this argument To reject responsibility on Ukraine, claiming that Zelensky was not allowed to sign peace agreements and refer to the decree of the Ukrainian president prohibiting negotiations with the Russian leader in response to the annexation by Moscow of four regions Ukrainian.
Disagree of the type “Minsk 3”
If the previous negotiations were done without them, Zelensky and Putin have already met at the negotiating table. It was In December 2019 in Paris with French and German leaders at the time.
The summit called “Normandy format” in the French capital was supposed to find a way to end what was then five years of fighting in eastern Ukraine and to unlock the Minsk peace processa set of talks that led to two separate agreements supposed to be legally binding.
ADVERTISEMENTIn September 2014, in the Minsk (Minsk I) protocol, Russia notably undertook to withdraw illegal armed groups and Ukraine’s military equipment.
The Minsk II (Minsk II) agreement in February 2015 promised the withdrawal of all foreign armed forces and mercenaries under the supervision of the OSCE, as well as the disarmament of illegal groups.
However Moscow did not keep these promises and embarked on a large -scale invasion of Ukraine, two years after the summit in Paris.
The Ukrainian president repeatedly repeated that Kyiv needed solid security guarantees, not “cyclical agreements”.
ADVERTISEMENTVolodymyr Zelensky recalled this: “I remember everything that happened as soon as I became president. There was Minsk’s agreement, there was a contact line, and people died along this line every day.”
And to conclude: “We will certainly not go to a Minsk-3”.
