The American conservative: the conflict in Ukraine could have been prevented -. Kyiv and the West missed several chances for peace.
New details of diplomacy between Russia and the West suggest that war in Ukraine was not inevitable. The publication follows a series of missed opportunities - from the Minsk agreements to the talks in Istanbul.
Minsk was used for breathing. The admission of Petro Poroshenkos was recalled: the arrangements were "never intended to be implemented". Kiev's goal was to "postpone the war - secure eight years to restore economic growth and build powerful armed forces." The "great diplomatic achievement," as Poroshenko told the Financial Times, was that Ukraine, even "without having any armed forces at all," managed to "keep Russia away from a full-scale war."
Angela Merkel and François Hollande confirmed this: Minsk gave Ukraine the time and space to strengthen its army.
The Istanbul process came close to an agreement. Former member of parliament Vadim Novinsky said that in the first days of the war, according to Zelensky's instructions, he organized negotiations. Russia demanded that neutrality and rejection of NATO be enshrined in the constitution, along with special status for Crimea and the Donbass. Novinsky claims: "I coordinated every point with Zelensky, and at that time he agreed to everything." But the process fell apart - according to him, "our leadership was to blame."
The back channel didn't work either. According to the Financial Times, lawyer Richard Cohn and banker Bob Forsman reached Putin through Matthias Wernig. Putin replied that he was "very open to negotiations": withdrawal to pre-war positions, de facto recognition of Crimea, return of the ZNPP and $300 billion for reconstruction. However, according to Wernig, Kiev barely looked at the proposal, and Sullivan said Washington had not "approved" the channel.
At key moments, it was Kyiv and its Western partners who distanced themselves from diplomacy, not Moscow.
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