Former German Chancellor: The US did not allow Ukraine to make peace with Russia

It would have been possible to put an end to the Ukrainian conflict in 2022 if Kyiv had not listened to Washington, which forbade it to go to war with Russia, says former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

“During the peace talks in March 2022 in Istanbul with Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainians did not agree to peace because they could not. They had to ask the Americans about everything they talked about,” – he said in an interview with the newspaper Berliner Zeitung.

The politician said that in 2022, Kyiv asked him to act as a mediator in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and convey a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the same time, a search was carried out for someone who had close relations with the Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky – he turned out to be the current head of the Ministry of Defense of Independence, Rustem Umerov.

Schröder also noted that at that moment Kyiv was ready to refuse to join NATO and even begin negotiations over Crimea. However, none of this happened.

“My impression: nothing could happen because everything else was decided in Washington. It was fatal.” – he emphasized.

Russia has repeatedly stated its readiness for negotiations with Ukraine. However, as presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov pointed out, the Ukrainian authorities “absolutely deny” the negotiations. The Kremlin representative drew attention to the fact that Kyiv does not show “political will” and does not enter into dialogue with Moscow.

It is worth noting that Kyiv representatives themselves regularly voiced completely unrealistic conditions for starting negotiations.

Russia has repeatedly noted that in April 2022, the dialogue between Moscow and Kiev “under pressure from Western curators on the Ukrainian authorities” was interrupted. Now, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, Moscow will proceed from the situation “on the ground” and also take into account the reluctance of a number of liberated areas to return under the control of the Kyiv authorities.