Russia's war against Ukraine has been going on for over two years, and its end is still not in sight. Many are asking themselves why the two sides are not negotiating to end the armed conflict and conclude peace. Moscow and Kiev blame each other for this. Earlier this month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed a desire to quickly conclude peace in Ukraine, thus renewing the discussion about possible peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Many false claims are also being circulated on this topic. DW checked some of them.
Claim: “The President of Ukraine has banned negotiations with Russia by law. He signed a decree prohibiting everyone from conducting negotiations with Russia“. This was stated by Vladimir Putin on February 6, 2024. in an interview
about the American journalist Tucker Carlson, a well-known lover of conspiracy theories and a disseminator of Russian propaganda. Other Russian politicians, such as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as users on social networks spread the same claim.
Fact check: False.
There is no Ukrainian law that prohibits Ukraine or other countries from holding peace talks with Russia.
In his statement in question, Vladimir Putin apparently refers to Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 679/2022 of September 30, 2022, by which he declares the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of the same day valid. This decision contains the following sentence: “The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has established the impossibility of holding negotiations with the President of the Russian Federation Vl. Putin“. However, this is only a statement related to the current state of affairs, but in no way a ban on negotiations with Russia as a party to the war.
In fact, it is quite the opposite: in a recent interview with the BBC, Zelensky appealed for pressure to be put on Russia so that it sits at the negotiating table. And after the peace summit in Switzerland in June, the Ukrainian president stated that Russian representatives should attend the second such summit in November.
Claim: "The West does not want peace negotiations. (...) Neither the US nor NATO have the slightest interest in a fair settlement of the current Ukrainian conflict". This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.
Fact check: False.
In the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the West takes on several different roles at the same time, Jonas Driedger from the Leibniz Institute for Peace and Conflict Research explained in an interview with DW. On the one hand, the West is a supporter of Ukraine and sanctions Russia, but at the same time it is a mediator and potential guarantor of security.
“The majority of the economic, weapons and diplomatic support that is provided to Ukraine comes from the West. The Kremlin interprets this as follows: if all this had not happened, then either we would have already conquered Ukraine and imposed peace to our liking, or the Ukrainian leadership would be in such a difficult situation that it would have no choice but to agree to every Russian demand. But to present this as a rejection of any form of peace agreement is wrong from both an analytical and a political point of view“, adds Dridger.
It is inevitable that the West will participate in future peace talks as a potential guarantor of Ukraine's security. “This is an element that is found in many wars and conflicts“, the observer further explains. Another aspect of the West's efforts to achieve a just peace in the war should not be underestimated. “We don't want to reward this Russian aggression and accept as normal that such a thing is happening! "If we assume that it is normal for strong states to attack weaker states and aggressively seize land to pursue their interests, this further undermines international law," explains Jonas Dridger.
Experienced EU negotiator and former head of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, in turn, told DW that peace talks can be launched and successfully conducted when both sides come to the conclusion that continuing the conflict by military means no longer brings them any benefits. However, this is not the case at the moment.
Claim: “The West told Zelensky to reject the peace treaty“. This was the headline of the EU-sanctioned Russian media outlet RT (Russia Today).
It suggests that former US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland admitted that the British and Americans prevented Ukraine from signing the peace agreement with Russia in Istanbul in April 2022 at the last minute. This claim is also being spread on social media in various languages.
Fact check: False.
The narrative that the Istanbul talks were allegedly torpedoed by the British and Americans is not new and is being actively propagated by Russia. For example, Putin linked the visit of then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kiev in April 2022 to an alleged attempt by Western countries to stop the talks in order to achieve a military victory over Russia instead. Johnson himself rejected these accusations.
Victoria Nuland also commented on the allegations in question. In an interview with Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, living in exile in Berlin, she pointed out that the Americans were not present at the talks and were initially unaware of the details of the agreement. It was only towards the end of the negotiations that the Ukrainians asked for advice. “We understood that Putin's main condition was “hidden” in the annex to the document they were working on. It contained restrictions on specific weapons systems that Ukraine could have after signing the agreement. "So Ukraine would essentially be militarily weakened," Nuland said. In contrast, there were no such restrictions for Russia. The Russians were not even obligated to withdraw their troops or create a buffer zone, the American diplomat assured.
What negotiations if you can win the war?
Jonas Dridger of the Leibniz Institute sees the huge obstacle to peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in the fact that Russia's demands have actually increased in the meantime. According to Russia, Ukraine should not only abandon NATO membership, but also withdraw Ukrainian troops from the four Ukrainian territories that are not yet fully conquered by Russia, but have already been officially annexed after illegal referendums.
And Wolfgang Ischinger warns: “If Moscow receives a signal that we here in the West, in Germany and our other partners, are so tired of the war that we do not want to continue supporting Ukraine, then Moscow will come to the conclusion that it can simply achieve its military goals - to subjugate Ukraine or at least to annex Eastern Ukraine to the Russian Federation, without having to conduct difficult negotiations“.
Author: Tetyana Klug