The often-repeated narrative that "Ukraine rejected a peace deal offered by Russia in the spring of 2022" is "one of the favorite lies promoted by Russia," said Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a video address posted on X on May 14.
The failed peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which were held in Istanbul shortly after the beginning of the full-scale war, have been a regular feature of disinformation campaigns spread by Russia and its allies. One popular theory, which is unsupported by accounts of the talks at the time, is that former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson sabotaged the negotiations.
Kuleba said that Russia is intent on pushing this unsubstantiated narrative because it wants to "shift the blame for the war...to Ukraine."
"They want people to forget that it was Russia that started the full-scale war in February 2022 and instead focus on the talks at the end of March 2022."
Kuleba acknowledged that Russian and Ukrainian delegates did indeed meet in the early months of the full-scale war and discussed how to bring an end to the fighting.
But Kuleba argued that the respective positions were "so far away" and the "Russian demands were so bizarre that the prospect of a real solution was not even remotely in sight."
Kuleba added that the narrative that Johnson somehow sabotaged the talks also does not match the timeline because the negotiations continued for months after Johnson visited Istanbul.
The real figure responsible for the lack of peace in Ukraine, Kuleba concluded, is Russian President Vladimir Putin, who "has been ruining peace in Ukraine for more than a decade."
Martin Fornusek
