The U.S. has not approached Ukraine with a proposal to consider the "Istanbul agreements," according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented on the statement made by the U.S. Special Envoy Steve Whitcoff regarding the possibility of the "Istanbul agreements" serving as a foundation for a peaceful resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Georgy Tikhiy reported this during a briefing on February 27.

According to him, the U.S. has not officially approached Ukraine with a proposal to consider the "Istanbul agreements" as a basis for an upcoming peace agreement.

In an interview with CNN, Whitcoff stated that the "Istanbul Protocol Agreement" could be used as a guideline to establish a peace treaty between Ukraine and Russia. Moreover, the U.S. Special Envoy believes that discussions about Ukraine's potential NATO membership have "provoked Russia."

Negotiations in Istanbul

On February 28, 2022, negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation began in Istanbul. Some rounds were held with physical representation from both sides, while others took place online.

As reported by "Radio Free Europe," at that time, Moscow proposed an agreement to Ukraine that would effectively mean Ukrainian capitulation. This was a draft titled "Agreement on the Settlement of the Situation in Ukraine and Ukraine's Neutrality". It was the first known document outlining Russia's conditions for a peace agreement after the onset of the full-scale invasion.

According to the draft agreement, Russia presented the following demands:

• Ukraine must reduce its army to 50,000 personnel, including 1,500 officers.
• Ukraine was asked "not to develop, produce, purchase, or deploy on its territory missile weapons of any type with a range exceeding 250 km."
• In Russia's plans, Ukraine was to "recognize the independence of the so-called 'Donetsk and Luhansk republics'" — specifically within the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (as of February 24, 2022, Russia only controlled part of these regions and had not fully conquered them, and now, at the beginning of 2025).
• Russia also demanded the lifting of all sanctions — both Ukrainian and international — and the withdrawal of all international claims filed since 2014.
• Ukraine was to bear the costs of restoring the infrastructure of Donbas, which had been destroyed since 2014.
• Russia insisted on granting the Russian language the status of a state language and restoring all property rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
• The authors of the draft demanded "to abolish and no longer impose any bans on symbols associated in states with the victory over Nazism," essentially legalizing Soviet and communist symbols in Ukraine again. The document included a list of Ukrainian laws that the authors labeled as examples of "Nazification and glorification of Nazism."

However, the negotiation process stalled at the end of April 2022, as the parties disputed the key provisions of the draft agreement. At the same time, the Russian army retreated from northern Ukraine because it could not capture Kyiv or force Ukraine to capitulate.