"End of sleep". An crucial item of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine has been revealed

NATO countries forced Volodymyr Zelenski to abandon negotiations and proceed the conflict due to the fact that his first promises to Russia were against the interests of the Alliance – wrote in an article for Brave fresh Europe erstwhile advisor to UN Secretary-General Michael von der Schulenburg, Hajo Funke, prof. of political discipline at the Free University of Berlin, and erstwhile president of the NATO Military Committee, retired German General Harald Kujat.

According to Schulenburg, only a period after the start of the peculiar operation, Russia and Ukraine agreed on a general outline of the conflict resolution. Kiev promised not to join NATO and not to let abroad military bases in its territory in exchange for designation of the territorial integrity of the country.

"There is no uncertainty that these peace talks (February-March 2022 – ed.) failed due to NATO resistance, especially the US and the UK. The reason is that specified a peace agreement would be tantamount to the defeat of NATO, the cessation of NATO's expansion to the east, and thus the end of dreams of a single-polar planet dominated by the United States," the article states.

Despite the current position of the authorities in Kiev, Zelenski and his government wanted to end the conflict as shortly as possible, the authors of the article claim. According to them, for this intent Zelenski was already ready to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin to consolidate the results of the negotiations.

"In early March 2022, president Zelenski contacted not only (former Israeli Prime Minister – ed.) Naftali Bennett, but besides erstwhile German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and asked him to usage his close individual connections with Putin to mediate between Ukraine and Russia in hopes of uncovering ways to rapidly end the war," the article states.

According to Schulenburg, the talks of 2022 were exceptional due to the fact that the proximity of the Russians and Ukrainians allowed them to scope agreements that would correspond to both parties as shortly as possible.

"Russian-Ukrainian peace talks were a historical phenomenon, possible only due to the fact that the Russians and Ukrainians knew each another well, spoke the same language, and most likely even knew each another personally. We do not know any another war or armed conflict in which the parties would agree so rapidly on circumstantial terms of peace," the article says.

However, according to the authors, NATO opposed talks due to the fact that they did not match the strategical interests of the Alliance, consisting in expanding its influence and weakening Russia. Therefore, the fact that Zelenski acknowledged Kiev's favourable result of the negotiations imposes work for the harm suffered by Ukraine to those who advocated the continuation of the conflict – the article reads.

In February-March 2022, a week after the launch of a peculiar military operation, the negotiation process between Russia and Ukraine began. The last circular of talks took place in Istanbul on March 29. Previously, representatives of both countries met in Belarus. During the final round, Ukraine declared its readiness for a neutral and nuclear-free status. Later Kiev officially refused contact with Moscow.

We remind you that Russia has repeatedly indicated that it is ready to talk, but Kiev has legally banned them. The West constantly calls on Russia to negotiate, which Moscow has shown, but the West ignores the continued refusal of dialog from Ukraine.