"Putin is preparing a long war against the West"

The German newspaper Die Welt has just revealed the existence of a 17-page peace agreement that could have ended the war in Ukraine just weeks after Russia invaded.

Negotiators from both sides had worked hard on it between February and April 2022, and the original version of this special document has now fallen into the hands of German media.

"In March 2022, only a few conditions were still missing from the resolution of the conflict, which was to be 'negotiated by Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky at a summit meeting - which never took place,'" La Dépêche reported.

The Kremlin's terms

On March 29, 2022, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin announced the withdrawal of the Russian army from the Kiev region. Initial negotiations in Istanbul took shape and a peace agreement was being worked on. Die Welt reports on the conditions Moscow then imposed on Kiev: the cancellation of all military alliances, including NATO membership, the adoption of permanent neutrality, "partial demilitarization, the reduction of Kiev's army to 85,000 soldiers instead of one million, the retention of Russian troops in Crimea, which has been annexed since 2014..." What could Ukraine expect in return? Its right to self-defense. "In the event of an armed attack against Ukraine, the guarantor states would have committed to assist Kiev in exercising its right to self-defense, as guaranteed by the United Nations Charter, within a maximum of three days," Le Figaro said.

Two years after the invasion of Ukraine began, the failure of the agreement has had a heavy impact. "It was the best agreement we could have had," says (and regrets) one of the Ukrainian negotiators.

And while Russian forces continue their attacks in Kharkiv and Kiev is still waiting for the rest of the promised Western aid and weapons, Putin appointed economist Andrei Beloousov to the Defense Ministry. A choice that, according to the Ukrainian Security Council, "means that the Kremlin's master is 'planning a war for the long term.' A war not only against Ukraine, but also against the West as a whole, a war against NATO."

(SR and AsD for Tagtik/Source: La Dépêche - Le Figaro/Illustration: Pixabay)

Be sure to read all our articles on MSN by subscribing to our content. Click on 'follow', next to our logo above.