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Erdogan's Russia Visit Vital for Grain Deal, Turkish Leader's Chief Aide Says

Erdogan's Russia Visit Vital for Grain Deal, Turkish Leader's Chief Aide Says

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds a press conference during a NATO leaders summit in Vilnius, Lithuania July 12, 2023. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will focus on the Black Sea grain deal during their meeting on Monday as Turkey seeks to bring Moscow back to the deal, Erdogan's chief foreign policy advisor said.

"We play a leading role here. We see strong support from all around the world for the realisation of the grain corridor," Erdogan's chief foreign policy and security advisor Akif Cagatay Kilic told an interview on A Haber television channel.

"The current status (of the grain deal) will be discussed at the summit on Monday. We are cautious, but we hope to achieve success because this is a situation that affects the entire world," Kilic said.

Russian drones hit Danube River port infrastructure that is critical to Ukraine's grain exports, injuring at least two people in the attack on southern parts of the Odesa region on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said.

The Danube has become Ukraine's main route for exporting grain since July, when Russia quit a U.N. and Turkey-brokered deal that had given safe passage to Kyiv's exports of grains, oilseeds and vegetables oils via the Black Sea.

Ankara acknowledged the technical complexities surrounding the agreement, particularly concerning Russian grain and payment mechanisms, Kilic said. The issue also involves international payment systems such as SWIFT, posing a multifaceted challenge, Kilic added.

"Here, the decision of Russian leader is important. I believe that the bilateral meeting between President Erdogan and Putin will play the most important role in this issue."

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay, editing by David Evans)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters .

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Turkey's erdogan offers to host a peace summit with russia during a visit from ukraine's zelenskyy, turkey ukraine, turkey russia ukraine war.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan , whose NATO-member country has sought to balance its close relations with both Ukraine and Russia, offered during a visit Friday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to host a peace summit between the two countries.

Erdogan, who has repeatedly discussed brokering a peace deal, said at a news conference in Istanbul following his meeting with Zelenskyy that he hoped Russia would be on board with Turkey’s offer.

“Since the beginning, we have contributed as much as we could toward ending the war through negotiations," Erdogan said. "We are also ready to host a peace summit in which Russia will also be included.”

Ukraine remains firm on not engaging directly with Russia on peace talks, and Zelenskyy has said multiple times the initiative in peace negotiations must belong to the country which has been invaded.

Zelenskyy said any peace negotiations must align with a 10-point plan he has previously suggested, which includes food security, restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression, and security guarantees for Ukraine.

“Any proposals for settling this war must start with the formula proposed by the state defending its land and its people,” he said. “We want a fair peace.”

The Ukrainian leader expressed hope that at the inaugural peace summit expected to be held this year in Switzerland, the possibility of reopening all Ukrainian ports, not only in Odesa but also in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, will be considered.

Zelenskyy, who visited shipyards where corvettes for the Ukrainian navy are being built, said on X that agreements were reached on joint defense projects with the Turkish government and corporations. He said on Telegram that they also agreed to simplify trade and remove barriers to business.

Erdogan said the two discussed stability in the Black Sea shipping corridor and he reiterated Turkey’s support for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.”

The visit comes as Zelenskyy and other officials continue to press other nations for more munitions and weaponry to halt the advance of Russian troops trying to make deeper gains into the Ukraine-held western part of the Donetsk region and also penetrating into the Kharkiv region north of it in the third year of war.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he was attending a meeting of the foreign ministers of France, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, that "drop by drop” aid to Ukraine no longer works.

“If things continue as they currently happen, it’s not going to end well for all of us,” Kuleba said. "What is required is an unrestricted and timely supply of all types of weapons and ammunition to ensure that Ukraine beats Russia and the war in Europe does not spill over.”

An envoy from China, which has frustrated Ukraine and its Western allies by boosting trade with Russia and portraying the conflict and its causes largely from Moscow’s point of view, was in Kyiv on Thursday during a European visit for talks on settling what it calls the Ukraine crisis. Li Hui, the special representative for Eurasian affairs, met with officials from Russia, the EU, Switzerland and Poland before his stop in Ukraine and was scheduled to go on to Germany and France.

Shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Turkey hosted a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers as well as unsuccessful talks between negotiators from the two countries aimed at ending the hostilities.

Later in 2022, Turkey, along with the United Nations, also brokered a deal between Russia and Ukraine that allowed the shipment of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. Russia, however, pulled out of the deal last year, citing obstacles to its export of food and fertilizers.

During Li's visit to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials described the horrors of the war.

“It is very important that you hear firsthand about the situation on the front line, what is happening and where we are,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential office, said, according to a Ukrainian statement.

It wasn’t clear how Li reacted to the presentation. China released a terse statement Friday saying only that Li arrived in Kyiv by train at noon, held candid and friendly talks, and departed by train the same evening.

The war has created a sharp division between China and the West. The Chinese government avoids using the words “war” or “invasion” to describe Russia’s attack and cites NATO expansion as a root cause of the conflict.

The Ukraine statement said the two sides discussed the possibility of China’s assistance in prisoner exchanges, the return of Ukrainian children in Russia and the return of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russia took control of during fighting in 2022.

Ukraine Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko on Friday urged Russia to immediately comply with an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution calling for the complete withdrawal its troops from the Zaporizhzhia plant and return of the station to Ukrainian control.

“Every day that Russians stay at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant increases the number of the existing problems and increases the threat of a nuclear incident,” Halushchenko said on national television.

In other developments:

— Zelenskyy signed an order Thursday allowing the first demobilization of soldiers who were conscripted into the army before Russia’s full-scale invasion. The order takes effect in April or May.

The soldiers, who had been required to continue their service after martial law was declared, can return home and remain in the army reserves, according to the order. It was not known how many troops are eligible because that information is classified.

— Indian authorities said Friday that they are in talks with Russia about returning Indian citizens duped into working for the Russian army, a day after a federal investigation agency said it broke up a human trafficking network that lured people to Russia under the pretext of giving them jobs.

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writers Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Erdogan to visit north

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to visit the north on July 20 to attend celebrations to mark the 50 th anniversary of Turkey’s invasion of the island.

While in Cyprus, he will also speak at the north’s ‘parliament’ building.

Erdogan’s trip to Cyprus will come at the end of a world tour which will begin in Kazakhstan on July 3.

There, he is set to attend the summit of the Shanghai cooperation organisation in the country’s capital Astana, while also meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin .

He will then cross the Caspian Sea to travel to Azerbaijan on July 5, where he will attend a summit of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) which is due to take place in the town of Shusha. Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar is also set to attend the summit.

Erdogan’s final overseas port of call before visiting Cyprus will be in the United States, with a Nato leaders’ summit set to take place in the country’s capital Washington DC between July 9 and July 11.

Tom joined the Mail in 2023. An award-winning journalist, he speaks four languages fluently, watches his local football team home and away, and is an avid traveller.

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Ukraine-Russia Peace Is as Elusive as Ever. But in 2022 They Were Talking.

Representatives from the warring nations held peace talks in the early weeks of the Russian invasion. They fizzled. Documents from those talks show why any new ones will face major obstacles.

By Anton Troianovski ,  Adam Entous and Michael Schwirtz

A draft Ukraine-Russia treaty from April 2022, published here in full for the first time.

With Russia and Ukraine locked in their third year of all-out war, there is no clear path to military victory for either side. Nor are there immediate prospects for a ceasefire and an eventual peace plan, with both sides sticking to irreconcilable positions.

Yet the issues that would need to be tackled in any future peace settlement are evident, and in fact were at the center of negotiations two years ago that explored peace terms in remarkable detail.

Documents reviewed by The New York Times shed light on the points of disagreement that would have to be overcome.

The documents emerged from negotiating sessions that took place in the weeks after the start of the war, from February to April of 2022. It was the only time that Ukrainian and Russian officials are known to have engaged in direct peace talks.

The talks failed as both sides dug in on the battlefield, but not before negotiators produced multiple drafts of a treaty that was supposed to guarantee Ukraine’s future security while fulfilling some of President Vladimir V. Putin’s demands.

Today, even with hundreds of thousands dead and wounded, Moscow and Kyiv appear further from peace than at any other time since the full-scale invasion. On Friday, Mr. Putin said Russia would agree to a ceasefire only if Ukraine handed over four regions the Kremlin has declared part of Russia and dropped its NATO aspirations. It was essentially a demand for capitulation, which the Ukrainian government immediately denounced.

Ukraine’s current demands — a withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory — also appear unrealistic given Mr. Putin’s apparent resolve and his army’s current advantages. This includes the Crimean Peninsula, which Mr. Putin annexed in 2014 in a swift operation that he considers central to his legacy.

But at some point, both sides could return to the negotiating table again — a scenario that is expected to be discussed as Ukraine gathers scores of countries, though not Russia, for a peace conference in Switzerland this weekend. If and when Ukraine and Russia resume direct negotiations, the issues raised in the documents produced at the start of the war, including the status of occupied Ukrainian territories and Ukraine’s future security guarantees, would remain relevant.

Russia initially wanted Ukraine to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

“Ukraine recognizes the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as an integral part (subjects) of the Russian Federation and, in this regard, shall make comprehensive changes to the national legislation.”

By April 15, both sides agreed to exclude Crimea from their treaty — leaving it under Russian occupation but without Ukraine recognizing it.

“Paragraph 1 of Article 2 and Articles 4, 5 and 11 of this Treaty shall not apply to Crimea and Sevastopol.”

An examination of the documents shows that the two sides clashed over issues including weapons levels, the terms of Ukraine’s potential membership in the European Union, and specific Ukrainian laws on language and culture that Russia wanted repealed. Ukraine’s negotiators offered to forgo NATO membership, and to accept Russian occupation of parts of their territory. But they refused to recognize Russian sovereignty over them.

Ukraine proposed never joining NATO or other alliances.

“Ukraine does not join any military alliances, does not deploy foreign military bases and contingents …”

Russia demanded that Ukraine make Russian an official language.

“Ukraine, within 30 (thirty) days after signing this Treaty, shall remove all restrictions on the use of the Russian language in any area in accordance with Annex 2.”

Russia, stunned by the fierce resistance Ukraine was putting up, seemed open to such a deal, but eventually balked at its critical component: an arrangement binding other countries to come to Ukraine’s defense if it were ever attacked again.

The Sticking Points That Kept Russia and Ukraine Apart

Documents from 2022 shed new light on what prevented Ukraine and Russia from ending the war — and what would complicate a future negotiation.

At the time, little about these peace negotiations was known, and what has leaked out in the two years since has been shoehorned into wartime talking points by each side. Mr. Putin contends the West pressured Ukraine to reject a peace deal; Ukraine's Foreign Ministry says that “if Russia wanted peace in 2022, why had it attacked Ukraine in the first place?”

The Times is publishing the documents it obtained in full. They are treaty drafts dated March 17 and April 15, 2022, showing the two sides’ competing proposals and points of agreement; and a private “communiqué” at in-person talks in Istanbul on March 29 that summarized the proposed deal.

The documents were provided by Ukrainian, Russian and European sources, and confirmed as authentic by participants in the talks and other people close to them. Some aspects of these documents have emerged , but most of the material has not been previously disclosed.

In addition to reviewing the documents, The Times spent months interviewing more than a dozen Ukrainian, Russian and Western current and former officials and others close to the talks; they include three members of Ukraine’s negotiating team. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations.

“We managed to find a very real compromise,” Oleksandr Chalyi, a member of the Ukrainian negotiating team, said at a panel discussion in Geneva last December. “We were very close in the middle of April, in the end of April, to finalize our war with some peaceful settlement.”

The Talks Begin

On Feb. 28, 2022, aides to Poland’s president met a group of senior Ukrainian officials at the border and ferried them by helicopter to a military base near Belarus. The Ukrainians then entered Belarus on their own and met a delegation of Russians led by an adviser to Mr. Putin, Vladimir Medinsky.

It was an unusual moment in the history of warfare: the start of direct talks between the invaders and the invaded, just days after Europe’s biggest war of aggression in three generations had begun.

Some of the Ukrainian negotiators who spoke to The Times thought that Mr. Putin had come to the table so quickly because he never expected his army to stumble so spectacularly. But as far as they could tell, the Russians sitting across from them had little sense of how badly their troops were doing.

Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, third from right; with an adviser to President Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Medinsky, and a Russian official, Leonid Slutsky, in Belarus. The photo was released by Belarusian state media.

BeITA, via Shutterstock

When Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian defense minister at the time, said his side had tallied 3,000 Russian soldiers killed in action, Mr. Medinsky appeared surprised and looked over at the top Russian military official at the table.

“No, we only have 80 soldiers” killed, the military official, Aleksandr Fomin, said, Mr. Reznikov recalled.

The negotiators soon shifted to video calls, with the Ukrainians dialing in from a conference room at Mr. Zelensky’s presidential offices, Ukrainian negotiators said, or, a few times, from an underground bunker.

Ukraine made a significant concession: it was ready to become a “permanently neutral state” that would never join NATO or allow foreign forces to be based on its soil. The offer seemed to address Mr. Putin’s core grievance — that the West, in the Kremlin’s narrative, was trying to use Ukraine to destroy Russia.

An Early Draft

Though the two sides engaged in regular video sessions after meeting in Belarus, a treaty draft dated March 17 shows how far apart they remained. The Times reviewed an English-language version that Ukraine provided to Western governments.

Ukraine sought Russia’s assent to international “security guarantees,” by which other countries — including Ukrainian allies who would also sign the agreement — would come to its defense should it be attacked again. It wanted the treaty to apply to Ukraine’s “internationally recognized borders,” even as Russian troops were still trying to take Kyiv.

Ukraine wanted its allies to be treaty-bound to intervene if it was attacked again, such as by…

“…closing airspace over Ukraine, providing necessary weapons, using armed forces in order to restore and subsequently maintain the security of Ukraine as a permanently neutral state.”

The Russian team wanted Ukraine and every other treaty signatory to cancel the sanctions against Moscow they had been levying since 2014 and to publicly call on other countries to do the same. Ukraine was to cede its entire eastern Donbas region and recognize Crimea as part of Russia. A seven-point list targeted Ukraine’s national identity, including a ban on naming places after Ukrainian independence fighters.

The latter demand illustrated one of Mr. Putin’s stated rationales for going to war: he had described Ukraine as an artificial country that should be considered part of Russia.

Russia’s treaty proposals read like a laundry list of Kremlin demands, including that Kyiv-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine be ceded to Russia’s proxy “people’s republics.”

“Ukraine recognizes the independence of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic within the administrative boundaries of the former Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine and, in this regard, shall introduce comprehensive changes to the national legislation.”

“Ukraine shall cancel and henceforth not impose, and also shall publicly call on all states and international organizations to cancel and henceforth not impose, any and all sanctions and restrictive measures imposed since 2014 against the Russian Federation.”

“Ban, with the introduction of criminal liability, the glorification and propaganda in any form of Nazism and neo-Nazism, the Nazi movement and organizations associated therewith, including holding public demonstrations and processions, construction of monuments and memorials and naming toponyms, in particular, streets, settlements and other geographical objects.”

The draft included limits on the size of the Ukrainian armed forces and the number of tanks, artillery batteries, warships and combat aircraft the country could have in its arsenal. The Ukrainians were prepared to accept such caps, but sought much higher limits.

A former senior U.S. official who was briefed on the negotiations, noting how Russian forces were being repelled across northern Ukraine, said Mr. Putin seemed to be “salivating” at the deal.

American officials were alarmed at the terms. In meetings with their Ukrainian counterparts, the senior official recalled, “We quietly said, ‘You understand this is unilateral disarmament, right?’”

Pro-Russian demonstrators in front of seized government building in Simferopol, Crimea, in 2014.

Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Leaders in Poland — early and strong supporters of Ukraine — feared that Germany or France might try to persuade the Ukrainians to accept Russia’s terms, according to a European diplomat, and wanted to prevent that from happening.

To that end, when Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, met with NATO leaders in Brussels on March 24, he held up the March 17 text, said the diplomat, who was present.

“Which of you would sign it?” Mr. Duda asked his counterparts, the diplomat said.

None of the NATO leaders spoke up.

A Breakthrough in Istanbul?

A few days later, on March 29, Russia and Ukraine’s representatives met at an Istanbul palace on the Bosporus. To some, the talks felt like a breakthrough driven by Russia’s battlefield struggles.

After each military setback, a member of Ukraine’s negotiating team said, Mr. Putin “reduced his demands.”

A photo released by the Turkish government showed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the opening of Ukrainian-Russian talks in Istanbul in March 2022.

Murat Cetin Muhurdar/Turkish Presidential Press Service, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In Istanbul, the Russians seemed to endorse Ukraine’s model of neutrality and security guarantees and put less emphasis on their territorial demands. Afterward, Mr. Medinsky, Russia’s lead negotiator, said Ukraine’s offer of neutrality meant it was “ready to fulfill those principal demands that Russia insisted on for all the past years.”

Ukraine summarized the proposed deal in a two-page document it called the Istanbul Communiqué, which it never published. The status of Crimea was to be decided over a 10- or 15-year period, with Ukraine promising not to try to retake the peninsula by force; Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Putin would meet in person to finalize a peace treaty and strike a deal on how much Ukrainian territory Russia would continue to occupy.

Zelensky and Putin would meet to hash out final differences, according to the discussions in Istanbul.

“The parties consider it possible to hold a meeting on ... ... 2022 between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia with the aim to sign an agreement and/or make political decisions regarding the remaining unresolved issues.”

The communiqué, provided to The Times by a Ukrainian negotiator, described a mechanism in which other countries would intervene militarily if Ukraine were attacked again — a concept that the Ukrainians pointedly designated as Article 5, a reference to the mutual defense agreement in Article 5 of the NATO treaty.

To the Ukrainians, binding security guarantees were at the core of a potential peace deal that multiple countries would sign on to.

“Possible guarantor states: Great Britain, China, Russia, the United States, France, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland, Israel.”

“The Guarantor States and Ukraine agree that in the event of aggression, any armed attack on Ukraine or any military operation against Ukraine, each of the Guarantor States, after urgent and immediate consultations between them … will provide … assistance to Ukraine, as a permanently neutral state under attack…”

But Russian officials sent mixed signals in public on whether the Kremlin was really ready to sign onto the deal. The Russians and Ukrainians returned to hourslong negotiating sessions by video call, exchanging treaty drafts via WhatsApp, negotiators said.

In early April, after Russia withdrew from the outskirts of Kyiv, images of massacred civilians in the suburb of Bucha, some with their hands tied with white cloth, shocked the world. For Ukrainians, the idea that their country could strike a compromise with Russia seemed more remote than ever.

But Mr. Zelensky, visiting Bucha on April 4, said the talks would go on, even as Russia dismissed the Bucha atrocities as a staged “provocation.”

Bodies in Bucha being taken away for forensic examination in April 2022.

Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

“Colleagues, I spoke to RA,” Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Davyd Arakhamia, wrote on April 10 in a WhatsApp message to the Ukrainian team. “He spoke yesterday for an hour and a half with his boss.”

“RA” was Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who played a behind-the-scenes role in the talks. His “boss,” Mr. Putin, was urging the negotiators to concentrate on the key issues and work through them quickly, Mr. Arakhamia wrote. (A member of the WhatsApp group showed that message and others to reporters for The Times.)

A spokesperson for Mr Abramovich said his role “was limited to introducing representatives from both parties to each other” and that following that initial stage, he “was not involved in the process.”

Mr. Arakhamia’s message suggested that Mr. Putin was micromanaging not only Russia’s invasion, but also its peace talks. At another point, Russia’s lead negotiator, Mr. Medinsky, interrupted a video conference by claiming that Mr. Putin was phoning him directly.

“The boss is calling,” Mr. Medinsky said, according to two Ukrainian negotiators.

Mr. Putin’s involvement and intentions during the 2022 talks were subjects of debate in Kyiv and Washington, Ukrainian and American officials said. Was he truly interested in a deal? Or was he merely trying to bog Ukraine down while his troops regrouped?

There were signs that Mr. Putin was micromanaging not only the Russian invasion but also the peace talks.

Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

“We didn’t know if Putin was serious,” said the former senior U.S. official. “We couldn’t tell, on either side of the fence, whether these people who were talking were empowered.”

One Ukrainian negotiator said he believed the negotiations were a bluff on Mr. Putin’s part, but two others described them as serious.

On April 15, five days after Mr. Abramovich told the Ukrainians about his meeting with Mr. Putin, the Russian negotiators sent a 17-page draft treaty to their president’s desk.

Sticking Points

Similar to the month-earlier version, the April 15 draft includes text in red highlighting issues in dispute. But such markings are almost entirely absent from the treaty’s first pages, where points of agreement emerged.

Negotiators agreed that Ukraine would declare itself permanently neutral, though it would be allowed to join the European Union.

Russia dropped its earlier objections to Ukraine’s full-fledged E.U. membership.

“The Parties to this Treaty share the understanding that Ukraine's status as a permanently neutral state is, subject to the provisions of this Treaty, compatible with Ukraine's possible membership in the European Union.”

Much of the treaty would “not apply” to Crimea and another to-be-determined swath of Ukraine — meaning that Kyiv would accept Russian occupation of part of its territory without recognizing Russian sovereignty over it.

But crucial sticking points remained. Russia wanted the firing range of Ukraine’s missiles to be limited to 25 miles, while Ukraine wanted 174 miles — enough to hit targets across Crimea. Russia still wanted Ukraine to repeal laws related to language and national identity, and to pull back Ukrainian troops as part of a cease-fire.

Russia’s ceasefire proposal declared that Ukraine would need to withdraw its troops on its own territory.

“Ukraine carries out the withdrawal (return) of units of its armed forces, other armed formations, weapons and military equipment to places of permanent deployment or to places agreed upon with the Russian Federation.”

The biggest problem, however, came in Article 5. It stated that, in the event of another armed attack on Ukraine, the “guarantor states” that would sign the treaty — Great Britain, China, Russia, the United States and France — would come to Ukraine’s defense.

A military vehicle making its way toward the Polish border from Germany for NATO exercises in April.

Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

To the Ukrainians’ dismay, there was a crucial departure from what Ukrainian negotiators said was discussed in Istanbul. Russia inserted a clause saying that all guarantor states, including Russia, had to approve the response if Ukraine were attacked. In effect, Moscow could invade Ukraine again and then veto any military intervention on Ukraine’s behalf — a seemingly absurd condition that Kyiv quickly identified as a dealbreaker.

Russia tried to secure a veto on Ukraine’s security guarantees by inserting a clause requiring unanimous consent.

“The Guarantor States and Ukraine agree that in the event of an armed attack on Ukraine, each of the Guarantor States … on the basis of a decision agreed upon by all Guarantor States , will provide … assistance to Ukraine, as a permanently neutral state under attack…”

With that change, a member of the Ukrainian negotiating team said, “we had no interest in continuing the talks.”

Two years later, there are still no signs that Russia and Ukraine might return to the negotiating table. At a Swiss resort this weekend, Mr. Zelensky will seek to persuade dignitaries from about 100 countries and organizations, including Vice President Kamala Harris, that victory remains realistic.

Russia is not invited, and China, its most powerful partner, opted not to attend . Mr. Zelensky has pledged to keep fighting, describing his peace plan as one in which Russia withdraws from all of Ukraine’s territory, pays reparations and is punished for war crimes.

“If we don’t make progress this year, then we will try again next year,” Mr. Zelensky privately told a European counterpart recently, according to a European diplomat who was present. “And if we don’t make progress next year, we will try again the following year, and the one after that.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is to meet with dignitaries from over 100 countries and organizations in Switzerland this weekend.

Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

Mr. Putin in recent months stepped up efforts to stoke Western divisions by portraying peace as having been within reach in 2022 — and saying he was prepared to restart those talks. Ukraine’s leaders have dismissed Mr. Putin’s statements on the subject as deception.

“Putin is a habitual liar, and his recent rants are no exception,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Mr. Putin shifted to a harder line on Friday, insisting that he would order a cease-fire and negotiate only if Ukraine withdrew from the four regions that Moscow has claimed as its own and dropped its aspirations to join NATO.

Even before Mr. Putin’s latest demand, experts said it was hard to imagine going back to the kind of deal discussed in 2022. Ukraine is more determined than ever to join NATO, a message it will reinforce when leaders of the alliance meet in Washington next month.

Instead, the more likely end to the fighting could be an uneasy truce. Marc Weller, a Cambridge international law professor who specializes in peace negotiations, said he expected leading Western countries to focus on defending Ukraine’s future battle line with Russia “rather than seek accommodation across it.”

“The Iron Curtain will now fall on the line of occupation administered by the Russians across Ukraine,” Mr. Weller said.

Original documents

To omit identifying markings, these documents have been retyped to resemble the originals. Typographical errors in the original documents have been retained.

March 17, 2022, treaty draft An early draft of a Ukraine-Russia treaty. The document is an English translation that Ukraine provided to Western governments at the time. [ English ]

March 29, 2022, Istanbul Communiqué The proposed agreement that was discussed at in-person talks in Istanbul, as summarized by Ukrainian negotiators. [ English translation ] [ Russian original ]

April 15, 2022, treaty draft A later draft of a Ukraine-Russia treaty. The document’s header shows this was a version that landed on President Vladimir Putin’s desk. The map referred to as Annex 6 is not included. [ English translation ] [ Russian original ]

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Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

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President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, revived a Cold War-era mutual defense pledge  between their nations, a deepening  of ties  propelled by Putin’s need for munitions to use against Ukraine.

Mark Rutte, the departing prime minister of the Netherlands who has guided more than $3 billion in Dutch military support to Ukraine since 2022, is poised to become NATO’s next secretary general .

The European Union will impose economic penalties targeting some shipments of Russian natural gas  for the first time, hoping to deprive Moscow of income.

Inside Russia’s Chechen Units: After hundreds of years of enmity with Russia, Chechens are deploying to Ukraine to fight Moscow’s war .

Narrowing Press Freedoms: Journalists in Ukraine say they are subject to increasing restrictions and pressure from the government , adding that the measures go beyond wartime security needs.

Belugas Escape Ukraine: A pair of beluga whales were transported out of danger in Kharkiv to an aquarium in Spain in an incredibly complex rescue .

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

Erdogan plans to hold talks with Putin

T urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will participate in the summit of heads of state and governments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana on July 3-4, where he plans to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to haberturk.

According to the Turkish edition haberturk, the summit's agenda will include the Russian-Ukrainian war, enhancing the functionality of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the latest situation at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, the gas hub to be created in Thrace, and the electoral initiative of Syrian rebels linked by Turkiye to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party in northern Syria.

Haberturk does not specify which topic Erdogan's talks with Putin will focus on.

Turkiye and Russia

Turkiye is one of the few European countries that, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, did not distance itself from the Kremlin but, on the contrary, seeks to develop relations with it.

Turkiye became the first NATO country to invite the President of Russia to visit it after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Turkiye does not support EU sanctions against Russia. According to Bloomberg, only in March of this year did Ankara begin to try to comply with the sanctions due to its interest in military cooperation with the US.

Also, Turkiye does not provide Ukraine with lethal weapons.

At the Peace Summit in Switzerland, which took place recently, a representative of Turkiye regretted that Russia was not invited to the event.

Turkey offers to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks as Erdogan hosts Zelenskyy

Erdogan pitches himself as go-between, Zelenskyy indicates Russia would not be invited to the first meeting.

Turkey is ready to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia to end the war, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Istanbul.

Speaking after their meeting on Friday, Erdogan, who has balanced relations with Moscow and Kyiv throughout the two-year war, spoke of “opportunities that Turkey can provide with its stance”.

Strategic mediation

Turkey’s strategic location on the Black Sea and its control of the Bosphorus Strait gives it a unique military, political and economic role in the conflict.

Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Turkey hosted failed ceasefire talks between Kyiv and Moscow.

“Both sides have now reached the limit of what they can achieve through war,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said this month.

“We think it’s time to start a dialogue towards a ceasefire.”

In July 2022, Ankara with the United Nations brokered the Black Sea Grain deal, the most significant diplomatic agreement so far reached between Kyiv and Moscow. But Moscow ditched the initiative a year later, complaining that the terms were unfair.

Kyiv has since used an alternative shipping route hugging the coastline to avoid contested international waters.

The Erdogan-Zelenskyy meeting comes a week after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Turkish counterpart Fidan at a diplomatic forum in Antalya.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to visit Turkey last month, but postponed the trip, according to Turkish and Russian media citing diplomatic sources. The Kremlin said it is rescheduling the visit.

Ukraine hails Turkey drone deal, Erdogan offer to mediate in Russia standoff

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• Erdogan visits Kyiv, offers to mediate in crisis
• Turkey has good ties with both Ukraine and Russia
• Erdogan, Zelinskiy sign free trade deal
• Zelinskiy hails deal to produce drones in Ukraine

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Reporting by Orhan Coskun, Tuvan Gumrukcu, Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets and Matthias Williams in Kyiv; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Matthias Williams; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Frank Jack Daniel and Gareth Jones

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Ukraine war latest: Russian officials 'thrown out of meeting' for breaking custom; new photos emerge of Putin and Kim's day out

Vladimir Putin has arrived in Vietnam for a state visit after he spent the day in North Korea yesterday, where he signed a defence pact with Kim Jong Un. Got a question on the Ukraine war? Submit it below for our specialists to answer.

Thursday 20 June 2024 19:16, UK

• Vladimir Putin arrives in Vietnam for state visit
• Russia and North Korea sign new defence deal
• Russian officials 'thrown out of meeting' for breaking custom
• South Korea condemns pact and says it will reconsider weapons for Ukraine
• New photos emerge of Putin and Kim's day out
• Analysis: Putin wants to prove he still has friends
• Listen to the Daily above and tap here to follow wherever you get your podcasts

Ask a question or make a comment

That's all of our live coverage on the conflict for now. 

We'll bring you any major developments overnight, and we'll be back with our regular updates in the morning. 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is "deeply grateful" for Joe Biden's decision to prioritise air defence deliveries for Ukraine. 

The Ukrainian president said his country was in critical need of the capabilities to protect its cities and civilians from Russian attacks. 

"The partnership between Ukraine and the United States is strong and unwavering. Together, we are protecting life against terror and aggression," he added. 

It comes after the US said a recent defence pact signed by Russia and North Korea was a "cause for concern". 

The recently signed defence pact between Russia and North Korea is a cause of concern but is no surprise, the White House has said.

Speaking to reporters, White House spokesman John Kirby said the agreement between the two countries was a sign of Russia's desperation for foreign assistance in the Ukraine war.

The deal has seen both countries vow to help each other if they faced armed aggression, and replaces previous treaties between the countries. 

Russia said the pact was needed because of "the deep evolution of the geopolitical situation in the world and the region".

Mr Kirby also said the US would reprioritise planned deliveries of foreign military equipment to go to Ukraine, which is in "desperate need" of more air defence capabilities.

Vladimir Putin has warned that South Korea would be making a "big mistake" if it decides to supply weapons to Ukraine. 

The Russian president's comments come after South Korea said a new defence agreement between North Korea and Moscow was "absurd" and it would reconsider sending arms to Kyiv as a result. 

Mr Putin said Seoul had nothing to worry about when it came to the mutual defence pact. 

Russian state media quoted him as saying that Moscow expected its cooperation with North Korea to serve as a deterrent to the West. 

He also refused to rule out supplying high-precision weapons to the country. 

Russia is considering making changes to its nuclear weapons doctrine, Vladimir Putin has said. 

The Russian president made the comments while speaking to reporters at the end of his Vietnam trip. 

The existing doctrine states that Russia may use such weapons in response to a nuclear strike or in the event of a conventional attack that poses an existential threat to the country. 

Ukrainian troops have been launching mid-range reconnaissance drones in Kharkiv.

Russian forces crossed into parts of the northeastern region last month, and officials claim they have seized at least a dozen villages.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Kyiv's forces are gradually pushing Russian troops out of the contested area.

A police search is under way for a woman who allegedly desecrated the graves of Ukrainian soldiers.

Kyiv city's prosecutor's office said the unknown woman vandalised the graves this morning. 

Commemorative plaques and lamps were torn off and broken, it said.

The Ukrainian flag was also "mutilated", it added.

"Operational investigations and searches are being carried out to establish the woman's identity," the office said in post on Telegram. 

If caught and found guilty, the woman could face up to five years in prison. 

We have been reporting today on Vladimir Putin's visit to Vietnam.

Here is a recap of what the Russian president has been up to: 

• Mr Putin signed a series of deals with his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam during his state visit;
• The two leaders signed agreements to further co-operation on education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration and health;
• They also agreed to work on a road map for a nuclear science and technology centre in Vietnam;
• Following the talks, Mr Putin said that the two countries share an interest in "developing a reliable security architecture" in the Asia-Pacific region based on not using force and peacefully settling disputes with no room for "closed military-political blocs";
• The Russian leader also met Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and is scheduled to meet Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong - Vietnam's most powerful politician;
• The trip has resulted in a sharp rebuke from the US embassy in the country.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Romania's decision to provide his country with two Patriot air defence systems will strengthen security in Ukraine and throughout Europe.

"This crucial contribution will bolster our air shield and help us better protect our people and critical infrastructure from Russian air terror," the Ukrainian president said on X.

The Patriot, which stands for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target, is a surface-to-air missile defence system.

For months now, Ukraine has been calling for countries to provide more air defence systems to help protect it from Russian attacks. 

The next NATO leader is now all but certain after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's last rival dropped out of the race.

He's now the only person running to be Jens Stoltenberg's successor when he steps down from the secretary-general role in October. 

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis dropped out of the race earlier today and Hungary lifted its veto on Mr Rutte's candidacy, paving the way for NATO to put on a show of unity over support for Ukraine.

Mr Rutte's appointment could be sealed by a meeting of NATO ambassadors in the coming days, or by the leaders when they meet in Washington in July for the alliance's 75th birthday.

NATO secretaries-general are responsible for chairing meetings and guiding consultations among the 32 member countries to ensure that the organisation, which operates on consensus, can continue to function.

Mr Rutte has already had to assure Hungary that he will not force it to take part in NATO plans to provide support to Ukraine.

Turkey, which had voiced opposition to Mr Rutte's bid earlier this year, has also lifted its objections. 

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Biden and Zelenskyy will sign a security deal, as G7 leaders agree to use Russian cash to help Kyiv

President Joe Biden leaves Air Force One as he arrives at Brindisi airport, southern Italy, to take part in a G7 summit, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. The G7 Summit will take place at the Borgo Egnazia resort from June 13 through June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

President Joe Biden is escorted by Air Force Col. Angela Ochoa, Commander, 89th Airlift Wing, as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, June 12, 2024. Biden is headed to Italy for the G7 summit. Biden’s granddaughter, Finnegan Biden, walks right. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Joe Biden is escorted by Air Force Col. Angela Ochoa, Commander, 89th Airlift Wing, as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, June 12, 2024. Biden is headed to Italy for the G7 summit. Biden’s granddaughter, Finnegan Biden, walks left. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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BRINDISI, Italy (AP) — President Joe Biden and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sign a bilateral security agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine on Thursday when they meet on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy.

Negotiators for the group have also reached an agreement on how to provide Ukraine with up to $50 billion backed by frozen Russian assets.

The international group of wealthy democracies has been discussing ways of using the more than $260 billion in frozen Russian assets, most of which are outside the country, to help Ukraine fight Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

European officials have resisted confiscating the assets, citing legal and financial stability concerns, but the plan would use the interest earned on the assets to help Ukraine’s war effort. An official with the French presidency confirmed the agreement Wednesday, saying most of the money would be flowing to Ukraine in the form of a loan from the U.S. government backed by the proceeds of the frozen Russian assets in the European Union. Two other people familiar with the matter confirmed the arrangement.

Final technical negotiations were underway ahead of the summit to finalize the legal terms of the deal.

The announcement of the agreement comes as Biden landed in Italy with an urgency to get big things done. Thursday’s security arrangement was aimed to send a signal to Russia of American resolve in supporting Kyiv, the White House said.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the security agreement would not commit U.S. troops directly to Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion — a red line drawn by Biden, who’s fearful of being pulled into direct conflict between the nuclear-armed powers.

“We want to demonstrate that the U.S. supports the people of Ukraine, that we stand with them and that we’ll continue to help address their security needs,” Sullivan said, adding “this agreement will show our resolve.”

Sullivan said aboard Air Force One that the goal of the financing plan was to have a loan that would “pull forward the windfall profits from the seized assets” of Russia, giving Ukraine a “substantial source of funding” to meet its immediate needs.

The national security adviser said he had a specific sum of money in mind, but declined to say if that figure was $50 billion. He stressed the urgency of getting Ukraine financial resources as soon as possible and that multiple countries would back the agreement.

“It’s to provide the necessary resources to Ukraine now for its economic energy and other needs, so that it’s capable of having the resilience necessary to withstand Russia’s continuing aggression,” Sullivan said.

This year’s meeting comes three years after Biden declared at his first such gathering that America was back as a global leader following the disruptions to Western alliances that occurred when Donald Trump was president. Now, there’s a chance this gathering could be the final summit for Biden and other G7 leaders, depending on the results of elections this year.

Biden and his counterparts from Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan will use the summit to discuss challenges related to artificial intelligence, migration, the Russian military’s resurgence and China’s economic might, among other topics. Pope Francis, Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are joining the gathering at the Borgo Egnazia resort in the Puglia region of southern Italy.

The summit, which opened Thursday, will play out after far-right parties across the continent racked up gains of surprising scale in just-concluded European Union elections . Those victories — coupled with upcoming elections in the United Kingdom , France and the United States — have rattled the global political establishment and added weightiness to this year’s summit.

“You hear this a lot when you talk to U.S. and European officials: If we can’t get this done now, whether it’s on China, whether it’s on the assets, we may not have another chance,” said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, an international affairs think tank. “We don’t know what the world will look like three months, six months, nine months from now.”

The G7 is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies that meets annually to discuss shared issues and concerns. This is Biden’s second trip outside the U.S. in as many weeks; the Democratic president was in France last week for a state visit in Paris and ceremonies in Normandy marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in World War II.

While last week’s visit had a celebratory feel, this one will be dominated by pressing global issues, including how to keep financial support flowing to Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion . Biden’s trip comes days after his son Hunter was convicted on federal gun charges , a blow sure to weigh heavily on the president’s mind.

AP AUDIO: Fresh off France trip, Biden heads back to Europe for G7 summit to talk Ukraine support, migration

AP correspondent Jennifer King reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be at Thursday’s G7 summit in Italy and meet with President Biden.

Despite pressing global challenges, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said there’s still a sense of relief among world leaders in 2024 that “America was back,” referencing Biden’s 2021 speech at the G7 in England.

“Biden’s message then was that democracies need to step up and show they can deliver for their people,” Kirby said. “That’s true now more than ever.”

Kirby said the U.S. was prepared to work with democratically elected officials in the EU no matter who they are, though some of those being elevated have expressed far less support for Ukraine than current leaders.

“We have every confidence that regardless of who fills the seats in the European Parliament, we’re going to continue to work closely with our EU partners on all the issues relative to our shared interests across the European continent,” Kirby said. “That includes supporting Ukraine.”

Biden and Zelenskyy, who met last week in Paris , are expected to hold a joint news conference while meeting at the G7 summit. Biden is also expected to meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni , the pope and other leaders.

Biden, who’s been adamant “we will not walk away” from Ukraine, last week publicly apologized to Zelenskyy for a monthslong delay by Congress in authorizing additional American military assistance. The delay allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield .

Sullivan called the security agreement a “bridge” to when Ukraine is invited to join the NATO alliance — a long-term priority of Zelenskyy’s that the allies have said will first require an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and that Putin has steadfastly opposed .

Biden’s back-to-back trips to France and Italy amount to a rare doubleheader of diplomacy in the midst of the presidential election . The president, however, will skip a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland this weekend to jet to Los Angeles for a campaign fundraiser with big names from Hollywood. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the U.S. at the conference .

Despite the delays in military aid, the Biden administration on Tuesday announced it would send Ukraine another Patriot missile system to help fend off Russian strikes, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. also announced fresh sanctions targeting Chinese companies that help Russia pursue its war in Ukraine, as well as Russia’s financial infrastructure. Sullivan said, “These actions will ratchet up the risk that foreign financial institutions take by dealing with Russia’s war economy.”

Biden is also expected to discuss economic concerns brought on by Chinese manufacturing overcapacity, how to use artificial intelligence in a way that maximizes benefits but still manages national security risks, and global migration.

The U.S. and other G7 nations are struggling to manage large influxes of migrants arriving for complicated reasons that include war, climate change and drought. Migration, and how nations cope with the growing numbers at their borders, has been a factor driving the far-right rise in some of Europe.

Superville reported from Bari, Italy. Miller and Madhani reported from Washington. Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Fatima Hussein and Josh Boak in Washington contributed.