The chance for peace between Moscow and Kiev was lost in 2022 due to the meddling of the then-British prime minister, Andrej Babis has said
FILE PHOTO. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Lviv, Ukraine. © Getty Images / Anadolu / Pavlo Palamarchuk
[RT] Czech
Prime Minister Andrej Babis has accused former British leader Boris
Johnson of derailing a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine early
on in the conflict.
The former British prime minister has long
been regarded as one of the key figures behind the continuing
hostilities and is believed to have torpedoed the first peace talks
between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul in March 2022.
According to
former Ukrainian head negotiator David Arakhamia and multiple
corroborating media reports, Johnson told the Ukrainian leadership at
the time to scrap negotiations with Russia and “just fight.”
Russia has accused the former prime minister of derailing the peace process, though he has denied the allegations.
Babis
reiterated the claims in an interview with TN.cz on Saturday, noting
that Russia and Ukraine were close to reaching a peace deal before
Johnson’s intervention. “The agreement was actually already closed in April 2022, but then Boris Johnson appeared... there was an interest in this conflict going on.”
The Czech prime minister also touched upon the ongoing US-mediated
negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, suggesting that the talks could
yield a “long-term solution” in the near future.
“The negotiations are intense. It seems they are approaching some long-term solution, ending the war and creating stable security guarantees for Ukraine. But Europe will not be able to do this without [US President] Donald Trump,” he said.
This year, Russia, Ukraine, and the
US have held two rounds of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, and
discussions between the parties in different formats have also taken
place. The three-way negotiations were held behind closed doors, with no
details shared by either side, except for both Moscow and Washington
calling the talks “constructive” and “productive.” The latest round of negotiations has resulted in the exchange of 314 POWs between Russia and Ukraine.