President Putin shows the Russia-Ukraine peace deal signed in 2022
19 Jun 2023 11:24:40
Moscow, Jun 19: Russian president Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of signing a peace treaty with Moscow to end the ongoing war saying that Kyiv later threw it into the ‘garbage of history’.
The comments by the Russian leader were made during a meeting with the leaders of the African Union spearheaded by South African president Cyril Ramaphosa at St. Petersberg's Konstantinovsky Palace. The meet included leaders from South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Zambia, Uganda, Congo Republic, and the Comoro Islands.
Vladimir Putin asserted that in the spring of 2022- during the initial phase of Russia's invasion of Ukraine- a peace treaty was signed by the two countries in Istanbul as Turkey hosted a series of negotiations to help develop "trust" between the two sides. "It was called the Treaty of permanent neutrality and security guarantees of Ukraine," Vladimir Putin showed the supposed draft of the treaty. "We never agreed with the Ukrainian side that the text will be confidential but we never showed it before nor commented on it. This draft of the treaty was initialed by the leader of the negotiation group from Kyiv. He put his signature. There it exists," he added. Kyiv did not react to Vladimir Putin's comments.
The peace agreement was discarded by Ukraine as soon as Russia obliged the request and withdrew troops from Kyiv, Vladimir Putin alleged, saying, “Where are the guarantees that they will not renounce any other agreements in the future?”