The Istanbul Agreement could serve as a guideline for peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, according to special envoy Whitcoff.

The special envoy of the USA, Steve Witkoff, stated this in an interview with CNN.

“We have come very close to signing something,” he declared. Witkoff believes that the “Istanbul Protocol Agreement” could serve as a guideline to reach a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia.

He did not specify the terms of such a potential agreement but emphasized that in any peace deal, “each side is going to have to make concessions, whether territorial or economic,” quotes him as saying, according to “Voice of America.”

Witkoff also mentioned that Donald Trump wants to be a “peace-making president” and achieve peace through strength.

In Witkoff's opinion, the war against Ukraine “was provoked.” “At that time, there were various discussions about Ukraine joining NATO […] This essentially became a threat to the Russians, and therefore we have to deal with that fact,” the special envoy stated.

Negotiations in Istanbul

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

As reported by “Radio Free Europe,” at that time Moscow offered Ukraine an agreement 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 following the start of the full-scale invasion.

According to the draft agreement, Russia made 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 any missile weapons of any kind with a range of over 250 km on its territory.”
• 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, even now, in early 2025).
• Russia also demanded the lifting of all sanctions, both Ukrainian and international, and the withdrawal of all international claims filed since 2014.
• Ukraine would be responsible for the costs of restoring the infrastructure of Donbas, which has been damaged since 2014.
• Russia insisted on granting the Russian language the status of an official language and restoring all property rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
• The authors of the draft demanded to “repeal and no longer impose any bans on symbols associated in states with victory over Nazism,” effectively legalizing Soviet and communist symbols in Ukraine once again. A list of Ukrainian laws deemed examples of “Nazification and glorification of Nazism” was added to the document.

However, the negotiation process stalled at the end of April 2022, as both sides disagreed on the main 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.