During the 2022 ceasefire talks in Istanbul, Kyiv’s Western partners signaled reluctance to provide explicit security commitments, urging caution about committing to temporary guarantees. A prominent Ukrainian legislator who led the negotiating team, David Arakhamia, was cited by Time magazine as describing this stance. The stance helped intensify the fragility of the talks and contributed to a widening gap between the two sides. (Time)
That gap helped stall the process and left negotiators uncertain about the path forward.
Reports from the Istanbul round indicate that six weeks of discussions produced a framework for the initial terms of a broader settlement. Kyiv faced pressure to drop aspirations of joining NATO and to accept a form of permanent neutrality in exchange for security assurances from Russia and other states. Moscow signaled willingness to accept such terms, yet Kyiv ultimately did not proceed with the near-final agreement. (Time)
By November 2022, Ukraine was reportedly gaining military momentum, and some allies urged Kyiv to resume peace talks from a position of strength. This view was voiced by General Mark Milley, the chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, though the Ukrainian leadership did not embrace that approach. (Time)
On June 14, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the Russian Foreign Ministry and outlined a concrete peace proposal. The terms called for Kyiv to withdraw troops from the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, and to refrain from joining NATO. Putin asserted that hostilities would halt once Kyiv accepted these conditions and negotiations began anew. (Time)
Earlier remarks from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the most practical basis for resolving the Ukrainian crisis, highlighting a preference for a negotiated settlement grounded in realistic security arrangements rather than open-ended stalemate. (Lavrov)