At the start of its full-scale invasion, Russia aimed to replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with former lawmaker and Kremlin ally Viktor Medvedchuk, Zelenskyy revealed during a meeting with members of the International Media Council in Davos on Jan. 22.
“Some people showed up in the early days of the occupation—some from Ukraine—with pieces of paper claiming to be mediators between Ukraine and Russia,” Zelenskyy said. “They handed me an ultimatum from [Russian dictator Vladimir] Putin. They told me, ‘We’re negotiators, working between Ukraine and Russia.’ It was basically the same list as the one presented in Türkiye, with some tweaks.
“They said I needed to step down and that they would replace me with Medvedchuk. So, I’d no longer be president. That was their first demand. I told them this wasn’t a problem because it’s up to our people to decide who leads the country.”
Russia’s demands
According to Zelenskyy, the Kremlin’s ultimatum included the following demands:
- Recognize the entire Donbas region as part of Russia;
- Grant official status to the Russian language;
- Amend Ukraine’s Constitution to adopt neutrality;
- Reduce Ukraine’s military to 50,000 troops;
- Destroy or hand over all weapons within 20 kilometers of the front line.
“This wasn’t negotiation—it was an ultimatum from a murderer,” Zelenskyy said. “His name is Putin, and he issued it. I sent those people out of my office because they were simply separatists, nothing more.
“Weeks later, after we defended the capital and pushed back the Russians, these same people continued having meetings with some of our folks.”
Failed negotiations
Zelenskyy also noted that Belarus offered to mediate talks but presented another ultimatum on behalf of Moscow.
“Later, in Türkiye, they tried again. President Erdoğan asked me, ‘Please, let them sit down and talk.’ I agreed, and they came back with yet another ultimatum. So, we can’t really say there were any negotiations, as every meeting was just Putin’s ultimatums.”
Background on Ukraine-Russia talks
On March 29, 2022, Ukraine and Russia held negotiations in Istanbul. However, talks stalled by late spring.
On June 15, 2024, The New York Times published documents detailing these peace negotiations. Key sticking points included:
- The level of weaponry allowed for Ukraine’s Armed Forces;
- Conditions for potential EU membership;
- Ukrainian language and culture laws, which Russia sought to abolish.
Ahead of a June 14 peace summit in Switzerland, from which Russia was excluded, Putin laid out his demands for ending the war. These included Ukraine withdrawing forces from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions, and renouncing its ambitions to join NATO.
On June 16, Zelenskyy stated that the Istanbul negotiations failed due to Russia’s ultimatums.
Read also:
Poland asks to be included in potential peace talks with Moscow
Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated on Oct. 14 that only Ukraine could decide when to pursue meaningful negotiations or peace talks with Russia.
Later, on Oct. 25, Putin claimed that Ukraine had sent him peace proposals through Türkiye but later withdrew them. However, Ukrainian Presidential Communications Advisor Dmytro Litvin publicly dismissed Putin’s claims as false.
Read also:
EU fights for a seat at Ukraine peace talks table
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There should be no negotiations. The West should order putler out of Ukraine. They can do it quite easily by threatening to sanction mafia land until the peasants finally turn on putler. That is putler’s biggest fear.
Of course F1.
You can’t negotiate with savages. Once the horror of Bucha was revealed, it became clear at long last, exactly the type of genocidal naziism that Zel was trying to defend his people from.
Ever since that, the level of help received has always run at 20% of the bare minimum required.
It would help a lot if members of the new administration refrained from insisting on Ukraine giving land to fiends. At the moment it’s just a procession of surrender monkeys: Cornflake, RFK Jr, DT Jr, VanZkov, Muskovy and now the latest : Marco Rubiovich.
Yeah, and Biden did that… I’m tired of all the whining. Ukraine needs a good deal to survive far away from Muscovy. It won’t be victory, it won’t be defeat. Anybody fucking with Trump should remember who was in charge the past four years long. Trump can rule via decrete if necessary but Biden did not bring a single decrete on its way to support Ukraine!!! Cheers! ♿
Replacing Zelenskyy with a sock puppet was just one of vlad putler’s plans out of many that utterly failed.