MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed readiness to reopen direct peace negotiations with Ukraine, indicating that any future discussions would incorporate both the abandoned 2022 draft agreement and the current realities of Russia’s control over nearly 20% of Ukrainian territory, the Kremlin announced on Saturday.
Putin’s proposal for renewed talks was made public in an early-morning address and was met with cautious openness from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who stressed that an immediate ceasefire is a necessary precondition for any dialogue to proceed.
Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s foreign policy advisor, stated that Moscow is prepared to revisit the framework established in the 2022 “Istanbul Communique”—a draft settlement born out of earlier negotiations in Belarus and Istanbul shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. The discussions collapsed in May 2022, but Moscow has continued to reference the document as a potential foundation for peace.
According to details from that draft, Ukraine would have adopted a neutral, non-nuclear status, forgoing NATO membership in exchange for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—the US, UK, France, Russia, and China—as well as other nations including Germany, Turkey, Poland, Canada, and Israel.
While the document provisionally addressed Ukraine’s EU ambitions and proposed limits on Ukrainian armed forces, the core of the proposal revolved around binding security commitments. Notably, it would have required Western nations to defend Ukraine militarily in the event of future aggression, a clause that raised concerns in Washington and its allies about being drawn into a direct war with Russia.
Territorial disputes, including the status of regions under Russian control, were secondary to the issue of security guarantees—widely seen as the biggest obstacle to a breakthrough. With both sides publicly signaling a renewed interest in talks, attention now turns to whether diplomatic momentum can overcome the significant trust deficit built up over three years of war.