INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The prospect of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the war is once again on the table after weeks of diplomatic
back-and-forth.President Vladimir Putin has proposed resuming negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday, three years after the two
sides held failed talks there in the early weeks of the invasion.The proposal came in response to a Western-backed call for a 30-day
ceasefire that Moscow has not yet accepted.Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Sunday that the new talks in Istanbul must take into account the
While the Kremlin has not responded to the ceasefire proposal, Kyiv said Russia had fired over 100 drones overnight on Monday.President
He does not understand dignity or honesty
conditionsPutin proposed the direct talks in Istanbul in a middle-of-the-night statement on Saturday that came hours after Kyiv and the
leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Poland called on Moscow to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face new sanctions.Putin said
he was "committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine" and that he wanted talks to "eliminate the root causes of the conflict and to
establish a long-lasting peace." He claimed that Moscow never refused dialogue with Kyiv and that the Ukrainian side had halted the
negotiations in Istanbul in March 2022.?e also accused Ukraine's Western backers of wanting to "continue war with Russia" and slammed
European "ultimatums" and "anti-Russian rhetoric."What was on the table in Istanbul in 2022?Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held several
rounds of direct talks in Istanbul in the first weeks of the war in 2022, but the talks fell through by May.In the three years since Moscow
invaded, tens of thousands have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes
Russia's army controls around one-fifth of the country, including the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014.The 2022 peace talk process led to
agree to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as
well as other nations including Belarus, Canada, Germany, Israel, Poland and Turkey.Ukraine provisionally agreed to non-nuclear neutrality
and forgoing NATO membership in return for a security guarantee
That guarantee would oblige the U.S
and its allies to fight Russia directly if Russia invaded Ukraine again, Reuters reported.According to Reuters, the 2022 draft also included
unacceptable for the Ukrainian side.In a November 2023 interview, David Arakhamia, who led the Ukrainian delegation at the 2022 peace talks,
claimed that then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had advised Kyiv against continuing the negotiations, instead suggesting that Ukraine
