Page 14 - UKRRptDec23

As part of the earlier tentative peace negotiations earlier in March that had begun in the Belarusian town of Brest and were the precursor to the Istanbul meeting, Kyiv had already proposed that it would abandon its Nato ambitions and return to a stance of neutrality that was enshrined in the Constitution until it was changed by former President Petro Poroshenko to make joining Nato a national ambition.
The decision to abandon its Nato ambitions came days after Zelenskiy lambasted the alliance for failing to come to Ukraine’s aid by closing the skies to Russian aviation, something he had been calling for since the first weeks of the war.
Wearing his now trademark military t-shirt and fleece, Zelenskiy told ABC News at the time: "I have cooled down regarding this question a long time ago after we understood that Nato is not prepared to accept Ukraine.” Arakhamia was a member of the Ukrainian delegation in Turkey. When he returned to Kyiv from the 29-30 March peace negotiations in Istanbul Boris Johnson arrived in Ukraine a few days later and said: ''We will not sign anything at all with them, let's just fight!'' according to Arakhamia.
Arakhamia's account is now the seventh confirmation a deal was done – a claim that remains highly controversial.
News of the deal was originally reported by Ukrainska Pravda, which also reported that Johnson was the instrument that stopped the deal going through. Zelenskiy also confirmed a deal was in the works in an interview he gave while in Bucha following a massacre there by departing Russian troops.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed a peace deal was reached with Ukraine last April and all the points were initialled before the deal was abandoned under Western pressure in his “Empire of Lies” speech at the UN on September 23, although he didn't name Johnson, saying only "the West" had scuppered the agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also confirmed a deal was done in comments in July.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also confirmed that the West had blocked a potential peace deal in an interview posted to his YouTube channel in February this year. Bennett, who was participating in the talks between Ukraine and Russia, said of the US and its European allies: “Basically, yes. They blocked it, and I thought they were wrong,” speaking of the efforts to end the war in March and April.
Another participant in the talks was Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who also confirmed a deal was close in comments to the Turkish press on March 20.
“We see that the parties are close to an agreement,” he said in a live stream at the time, Al Jazeera reported.
“Of course, it is not an easy thing to come to terms with while the war is going on, while civilians are killed, but we would like to say that momentum is still gained." US foreign policy advisor Fiona Hill added credence to the original
14 UKRAINE Country Report December 2023 www.intellinews.com