November 29, 2023

Russia's Unrealistic Peace Offer


Russia's Unrealistic Peace Offer
A Ukrainian flag. Vika Strawberrika, Unsplash.

Davyd Arakhamia, leader of the ruling "Servant of the People" party in Ukrainian parliament, revealed that, in the spring of 2022, Russian negotiators proposed a conditional peace deal.

Arakhamia, who spearheaded Ukraine's delegation in talks with Russia, said Russian negotiators offered to halt their invasion if Ukraine agreed not to join NATO. The senior Ukrainian lawmaker did not provide further details about the previously undisclosed Russian proposal or Ukraine's response. The two sides have held sporadic negotiations since the Kremlin launched its full-scale offensive on February 24, but have so far failed to reach a diplomatic solution.

"They really hoped they would get us to sign such an agreement, so that we would become neutral. It was the biggest issue for them. They were ready to end the war if we took — as Finland did — neutrality and made commitments to not join NATO. In fact, this was their key point," Arakhamia said in an interview.

As to why Ukraine rebuffed the Russian proposal, Arakhamia said accepting the deal would have required altering the country's constitution, which sets future NATO membership as a priority. He added that even floating such constitutional changes would have been perceived as capitulating to Moscow's demands under duress amid the ongoing war.

“There was no trust in the Russians that they would [end the war]. This could only be done if there were security guarantees. We couldn't sign something, move away, everyone would exhale, and then they [the Russians] would come in more prepared — because they came in, in fact, unprepared for such resistance. Therefore, we could only go forward when there is one hundred percent confidence that it will not happen again a second time. And there is no such confidence.”

You Might Also Like

Invading Ukraine, Then vs. Now
  • March 01, 2022

Invading Ukraine, Then vs. Now

A comparison of Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014 vs. the invasion of all of Ukraine in 2022 (written two weeks prior to the invasion)
NATO and Ukraine Grow Closer
  • October 18, 2023

NATO and Ukraine Grow Closer

NATO and Ukraine are planning to launch an analytical center to revise soldier training based on the Russian invasion.
Will NATO Say No?
  • July 08, 2023

Will NATO Say No?

On whether Ukraine will receive an invitation to join NATO next week.
War Support Falling
  • December 04, 2022

War Support Falling

According to an internal, Kremlin poll, 55% of Russians favor negotiations with Ukraine, and only 25% are in favor of continuing the war.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955