The New York Times has published what it claims is the full text of then 2022 draft peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine.
The never-signed documents — treaty drafts dated March 17 and April 15, 2022 — were purportedly leaked to the newspaper by Ukrainian, Russian and European sources.
Kiev ultimately pulled out of the deal, brokered by Turkey over several weeks of talks in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian negotiating teams from February to April of 2022, after then-British prime minister Boris Johnson promised huge arms supplies from NATO countries.
According to the key points from the document:
Ukraine had to maintain permanent neutrality and not engage in wars on the side of a guarantor state or any third country
The guarantors of Ukraine's security and neutrality would be Great Britain, China, Russia, the US and France, with Belarus and Turkiye also mentioned
Ukraine would not be allowed to conduct military exercises involving foreign armed forces without the consent of the guarantors
The guarantors pledged not to form military alliances with Ukraine, not to interfere in its internal affairs and not to deploy troops on its territory
All mutual sanctions and bans between Russia and Ukraine were to be lifted, but certain provisions of the agreement did not apply to Crimea, Sevastopol and territories marked on a map in the appendices — which the NYT did not provide
Pages 11 and 12 specified personnel, weaponry and equipment limits for the Ukrainian Armed Forces during peacetime: no more than 342 tanks, 1,029 armoured vehicles and 96 multiple rocket launchers, based on Russia's demands
The maximum firing range for multiple rocket launchers and missiles was set at under 280 km. Ukraine also pledged not to produce or domestically purchase weaponry of greater range
German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag claimed in April it had obtained the 17-page draft peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine.
It stated that while the sides had come close to sealing a peace treaty, The Zelensky regime objected to terms restoring Russian as an official language and Kiev’s repudiation of Nazism.
Efforts to strike a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine were thwarted by Johnson at the behest of the US, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin said in February.
"He blocked the peace efforts with Washington's blessing, obviously, because he could not do it on his own accord," Kelin told Turkish broadcaster TRT World.
After Johnson arrived in Kiev, "the document, which had already been initialled by the head of the Ukrainian delegation, [David] Arakhamia, was thrown into the wastebasket, and Ukraine started fighting," he added. "These are the consequences of what the prime minister of the United Kingdom did."
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in his February interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that talks with Ukraine in 2022 were close to agreement, but Ukraine broke the deal after Russian pulled its troops back from Kiev as a good-will gesture requested by western European leaders.