Report Boris Johnson Spiked a Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal in April

Sept. 4, 2022 (EIRNS)—According to a new article for the September/October 2022 issue of Foreign Affairs, Russia and Ukraine may have been near to reaching a peace deal back in April.

“Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement,” write Fiona Hill and Angela Stent in the Council on Foreign Relations journal. “Russia would withdraw to its position on Feb. 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev in April and reportedly told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end negotiations with Russia. Russia could not be trusted to negotiate, said Johnson, and the West was not ready for an end to the conflict. Achieving peace with Russia would normalize its behavior, in Johnson’s stated view.

This news underscores the international nature of the conflict and the use of Ukraine as a tool for proxy conflict with Russia.