The Wall Street Journal publishes the terms of a peace agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, almost agreed, but not yet signed, in April 2022 - six weeks after the start of the war.
The main points of the agreement:
- Ukraine can become a member of the EU, but cannot join military alliances such as NATO. That is, the neutral status of the country with the prospect of joining the EU was assumed,
- of all the captured territories, only Crimea would remain under unconditional Russian control. The future of the "LDNR" was supposed to be determined during personal negotiations between Zelenskyi and Putin, which never took place. As for other territories captured by the Russian Federation after February 24, 2022, The Wall Street Journal article does not mention them, but earlier a number of people who participated in the negotiations stated that Moscow agreed to withdraw Russian troops from them.
- foreign weapons and troops cannot be sent to Ukraine,
- the Ukrainian army had to be reduced to a certain size: Russia wanted no more than 85 thousand soldiers, 342 tanks, 519 artillery pieces. And the range of missiles should be limited to 40 km. Ukraine wanted 250,000 soldiers, 800 tanks and 1,900 artillery pieces. Arestovych previously stated that this issue should also have been agreed upon at a personal meeting between Zelenskyi and Putin.
- the Russian language should be used on an equal footing with Ukrainian in the official sphere. But Ukraine did not agree to this point,
- the Russians did not want the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Ukraine. Ukraine did not agree to this point;
- Ukraine did not agree to the cancellation of all mutual sanctions.
According to this treaty, the security of Ukraine was to be guaranteed by foreign countries, the document included the USA, Great Britain, China, France and Russia. These countries would be responsible for defending Ukraine if the treaty is violated. But while the treaty is in force, the guarantors will be obliged to "suspend international treaties and agreements incompatible with the permanent neutrality of Ukraine", including any promises of bilateral military assistance. International security guarantees would not apply to Crimea and Sevastopol.
Russia also wanted to add Belarus as a guarantor, and Ukraine - Turkey.
In the event of an attack on Ukraine, the Russian Federation proposed that all the guarantor states agree on a response, but Kyiv was against this, since such a condition "would mean that a unified response is unlikely if Russia itself would become the aggressor." Ukraine, on the other hand, wanted its airspace to be closed in the event of an attack, which would require the guarantor states to introduce a no-fly zone and provide them with weapons. The Russian Federation did not agree to this.
The WSJ comments that the document "appears to be largely based on the 1990 treaty that created a unified Germany."
Negotiations continued until June 2022, in particular regarding Zoom.
The WSJ makes it clear that they stopped at the initiative of Ukraine: "In the end, no agreement could be reached. The scale of Russian war crimes in Ukraine has become evident, Ukraine's military successes have improved, and the West has provided weapons to support Kyiv."
It will be recalled that Arahamia previously stated that Ukraine did not agree to sign the treaty on ending the war in 2022, in particular because of Boris Johnson's position.
