The Russian “peace treaty” in the spring of 2022 was an act of capitulation of Ukraine – a draft agreement has been published
5 November 12:02
The Sistema Project, an investigative unit of Radio Liberty, has obtained the text of the “peace treaty” that Russia tried to impose on Ukraine in the spring of 2022, during talks in Istanbul and Belarus. Komersant ukrainskyi has analyzed the document.
The document, titled “Agreement on the Settlement of the Situation in Ukraine and the Neutrality of Ukraine,” appeared 11 days after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, on March 7, 2022. This “draft treaty” was developed in the Kremlin and handed over to Ukrainian representatives during the third meeting of negotiators held in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus). The document was Russia’s first known attempt to put its terms for a peace agreement in writing since the full-scale invasion began.
The negotiation process began on February 28, 2022, when Russian troops had already seized part of the territories in the south, east, and north of Ukraine and were approaching Kyiv. The Ukrainian delegation was headed by David Arakhamia, and the Russian delegation by Vladimir Medinsky. Meetings were held both in person and online. The negotiations ended in late April 2022 due to irreconcilable differences and the retreat of Russian troops from northern Ukraine.
Main provisions of the “peace treaty”
Military aspect
The document provided for the complete neutralization of Ukraine in military terms. To begin with, it provided for an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops, and the cessation of any external military assistance to Ukraine. At the same time, Russian troops were to remain in their positions until the terms of the agreement were fully implemented.
Furthermore, according to the agreement, Ukraine was to refuse to join any military alliances and to significantly limit its armed forces to 50,000 people. It also prohibited the deployment of foreign military bases on the territory of Ukraine and joint exercises with foreign armies. Particular attention was paid to the ban on the development and deployment of missile weapons with a range of more than 250 kilometers.
Legal issues
In the territorial aspect, the agreement required Ukraine to officially recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, as well as to recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. Moreover, Ukraine had to undertake to restore the infrastructure of these territories.
A significant part of the document is devoted to legal issues. Ukraine was required to withdraw all interstate lawsuits against Russia filed since 2014 and to give up the possibility of filing such lawsuits in the future. The agreement also obliged Ukraine to lift all restrictive measures against Russia imposed since 2014 and to call on other states to do the same.
It also provided for the complete release of the Russian Federation from any liability for claims of individuals and legal entities. The need to abandon the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court was also emphasized.
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Humanitarian policy
Special attention was paid to the language issue and cultural policy. The agreement provided for the granting of state status to the Russian language throughout Ukraine, the abolition of language quotas in the media and other restrictions on the use of the Russian language. The document also demanded that the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate be ensured and that what the document calls “the glorification of Nazism” be banned.
The humanitarian block of the agreement includes provisions on facilitating the return of refugees, the exchange of bodies of the dead and prisoners of war, and the release of interned civilians. However, these humanitarian aspects appear to be secondary to the main political and military demands.
Later versions of the “agreement”
According to Radio Liberty, in later versions of the agreement (of March 17 and April 15), some positions were softened. The issue of Crimea was postponed to the future, and language and historical issues were put on the back burner. Security guarantees for Ukraine with the participation of Western countries were discussed. However, the parties still could not agree on the size of the Ukrainian army.
Absurd moments arose during the negotiations. For example, Russia demanded that water supplies to Crimea be restored, even though it controlled the areas around the canal. When Russia demanded that Ukrainian troops lay down their arms, the Ukrainian side made a similar demand of Russian troops, which surprised Russian negotiators.
According to experts, even the softened versions of the agreement in April were still based on the same logic as the original text and would have actually meant a softer form of Ukraine’s surrender. The key requirement to ban Ukraine’s membership in NATO remained unchanged, contrary to the position of both Kyiv and the Alliance itself.
However, by September 2022, Russia’s position had become tougher: Putin declared five Ukrainian regions (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson) to be parts of Russia, including territories he did not control. He stated that control over these territories was a prerequisite for any peace talks. However, there were no negotiations, at least not official ones, at that time.
