Davyd Arakhamiia, a top advisor to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leader of the Servant of the People faction, said the Russian delegation at the 2022 negotiations in Istanbul had promised Kyiv peace in return for neutrality.
"The war could have ended in the spring of 2022 if Ukraine had agreed to neutrality," Arakhamia, who led the Ukrainian delegation, told Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 on Friday.
"Russia’s goal was to put pressure on us so that we would be neutral. This was the main thing for them: They were ready to end the war if we accepted neutrality, like Finland once did. And for us to make a commitment that we will not join NATO. This is the main thing," he added.
In reply to why Ukraine did not agree to the proposal, Arakhamia said: "Firstly, it was necessary to change the Constitution, and secondly, there was no trust in the Russians that they will do this."
"Further, after we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson visited Kyiv and said that we should not sign anything with the Russians and 'let’s just fight.'"
Attempts at peace negotiations started shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Several rounds of negotiations took place, including in Türkiye during which then Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu acted as mediator.
Toward the end of March, it looked like a deal had been negotiated and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Ukraine was ready to agree to four out of Russia's six demands.
It was after the final rounds of negotiations that then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Ukraine, pushing back against the peace deal.
Johnson's visit came amid severe political turbulence in the U.K. due to several police investigations against him, over which he ultimately had to resign as Prime Minister.
During his visit to Ukraine, Johnson said: "Putin is a war criminal, he should be pressured, not negotiated with," and three days after Johnson left Kyiv, Putin stated publicly that talks with Ukraine "had turned into a dead end."
Having failed a diplomatic resolution, the war continued. The New York Times reported in August 2023 that the total number of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since the war in Ukraine is nearing 500,000.
The recent statements from Arakhamia comes amid a change of rhetoric’s from both Ukrainian and Western officials, possibly signalling that an end to the conflict could be in sight.
After Ukraine’s counteroffensive failed to reach the expectations of both Ukrainians and their Western allies, earlier this month Ukraine’s Commander-in-chief Gen. Valery Zaluzhny gave an interview to the Economist, saying that the war was at a stalemate.
Recent developments suggest that U.S. and European officials have now started speaking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war.