During negotiations in London on April 23, representatives of Ukraine presented the US delegation with their version of a peace plan. The British newspaper The Telegraph reviewed its content.
It is reported that Kyiv put forward five demands, the first of which is that the occupied Crimea cannot be officially recognized as Russian. As the Ukrainian side noted, recognizing Russian control would violate the central principle of international law — no country can annex the territory of another — and violate the Ukrainian constitution, which states that territory can only be returned through a referendum.
The publication notes that by putting forward its demands, Ukraine hopes to effectively deprive any official international recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea or other occupied territories.
The first and second points of Ukraine's demands focus on formulating any peace agreement as «based on international law, not on capitulation», with a specific warning about the possible invasion of Taiwan by China following such a precedent.
Ukraine also considers it important to have clear «security guarantees» that should follow any prospective peace agreement in which Ukraine cedes territory to Russia, even on a temporary basis, writes The Telegraph.
The third point states that Ukraine must return to the «center of the peace process», rather than receiving arrangements from third countries. The fourth point essentially complements the first: it states that by maintaining control over Crimea, Russia could threaten an attack not only on Ukraine but also on other Black Sea countries — Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria.
The fifth point concerns the fact that Russia should not be allowed to use the agreement to limit the size of Ukraine's armed forces or its defense-industrial base.
Meanwhile, according to media reports, despite the failure of negotiations in London earlier in the week, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Moscow for further talks with the Kremlin.