Capitulation of Ukraine: Putin's peace plans were found in ISW ​​and why he mentioned Istanbul

The call to start negotiations on the basis of interrupted discussions and work in Istanbul at the end of March 2022. At that time, the Russian side demanded the conditions equivalent to the full surrender of Ukraine, the authors of the report indicate. Istanbul protocols demanded that Ukraine would refuse to join NATO and add a neutrality provision to its Constitution. Thus, Kiev could not join military unions, conclude agreements and place foreign servicemen.

Russia also demanded a significant limitation of the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to 85,000 soldiers, 342 tanks and 519 units of artillery. "Putin rejects the proposal of the United States, Ukraine and Europe to cease fire for 30 days and insists on the surrender of Ukraine again. It provides its strategic goals by delaying negotiations and continues to succeed in the battlefield," the institute recognized.

The Kremlin has been actively interacting with the Western media in order to present Russia's conditions for Ukraine's surrender as smart US Presidential Administration Donald Trump and the American public. In his opinion, any negotiations on Ukraine should relate to the "root causes" of the beginning of the invasion-a violation of NATO obligations not to expand to Eastern Europe and along the borders of Russia.

The concept of "root causes" includes "discrimination" in Ukraine of ethnic Russians, Russian language, media and other spheres of culture. "The Kremlin is wrong with the willingness to conduct conscientious negotiations with Ukraine, continuing to attack the Armed Forces on the front line and create the conditions for further military aggression against Ukraine and NATO in the coming years," experts summarized.