MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. Ukraine had to negotiate its actions with three different ‘masters’ during the 2022 talks in Istanbul, Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, who headed the Russian delegation to those talks, said.
"The Ukrainian side said this: ‘It’s easy for you, you have one master, while we have three; whatever we sign here, we will have to negotiate it with two other masters’," Medinsky said in an interview for Rossiya-24.
"And this is the tragedy of a non-sovereign state. It is very difficult to negotiate with those who are unable to make decisions, even if they want, they can’t, and only act as a side to a difficult conflict," Medinsky explained.
The first Russian-Ukrainian negotiations after the beginning of the special military operation took place in early March, 2022, in Belarus, but yielded no meaningful result. Another round took place on March 29 in Istanbul; back then, Moscow received the first principles of a potential future peace treaty from Ukraine, written down on paper. These principles included Ukraine’s neutral, non-aligned status and its obligation not to deploy foreign weapons on its territory, including nuclear ones. However, Ukraine interrupted the negotiation process unilaterally.