Kremlin says Russia, US see 2022 Istanbul draft as possible basis for Ukraine deal

By Dmitry Antonov and Mark Trevelyan

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the U.S. both see draft accords discussed by Moscow and Kyiv in the early weeks of the war as a possible basis for a Ukraine peace deal, the Kremlin said on Friday, though Ukraine's president has previously rejected them as unacceptable.

The draft documents - discussed at talks in Istanbul at the end of March 2022 - would have obliged Ukraine to give up its NATO ambitions and accept permanent neutral and nuclear-free status, in return for security guarantees from the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

But the two sides disagreed over Russian demands, which included a right of veto over actions by the guarantor states to assist Ukraine in the event of an attack.

"There were very, very, what I'll call cogent and substantive negotiations, framed in something that's called the Istanbul protocol agreement," U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN last month.

"We came very, very close to signing something, and I think we'll be using that framework as a guidepost to get a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia."

Asked about Russia's position on the Istanbul draft, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday:

"In Washington, we have also heard statements that this could become a basis, a starting point for negotiations. And, of course, President (Vladimir) Putin said that the negotiations could have the Istanbul Agreements as a starting point."

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said last week that Kyiv had not received any proposals from the U.S. to use the Istanbul documents as a basis for peace negotiations.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as recently as December rejected the Istanbul approach, describing it as an ultimatum requiring his country's surrender.

UKRAINIAN FEARS

A fast-moving push by President Donald Trump to mend U.S. ties with Russia and bring a swift end to the three-year war has raised fears in Kyiv and among its European allies that Ukraine's interests could be sacrificed.

Those fears have intensified in the past week, after Trump berated Zelenskiy in a bitter clash at the White House, and then paused U.S. military aid and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv.

Among other points of disagreement in the 2022 negotiations was Russia's demand for deep cuts to the size of Ukraine's armed forces and the number of its tanks, missiles, warplanes and other weapons.

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War wrote in an analysis last month that the terms of the Istanbul protocol draft would have left Ukraine helpless to defend itself against any future threat from Russia.

"It is thus entirely incompatible with the current stated U.S. policy and cannot be the basis or guidepost for negotiations that amount to anything other than capitulation to Russia’s pre-war demands," it said.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow, Mark Trevelyan in London and Yuliia Dysa in Gdansk; Editing by Gareth Jones)