The president of Kazakhstan, Kassim Jomart Tokayev, urged this Saturday his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to "suspend" the military offensive in Ukraine and return to negotiations based on the Istanbul draft from May of last year. This is a proposal driven with the mediation of the United States, which never materialized and whose terms were ultimately rejected by Kiev.
"Perhaps it is time to suspend this conflict and resume the Istanbul 2.0 formula, as significant results have been achieved there. Naturally, with the guarantees of the great powers, including Russia, we can continue to move towards the long-desired peace," the Kazakh leader stated in the Russian city of Omsk, during the Interregional Cooperation Forum between the two countries and in the presence of Putin.
Tokayev has called for at least a halt to hostilities because "what is happening benefits and pleases both Russia's adversaries and Ukraine's" and, in a broader analysis, pointed out that the very nature of the conflict "is not entirely clear."
"Let's say that when there was a conflict, including the frozen conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the essence and origins of that conflict were completely clear to us; they dated back to ancient times. But in this case, it is very difficult to understand," he stated in remarks disseminated by Russian media.
In light of this scenario, the president of Kazakhstan has defended the freezing of the war as "a proven approach in international practice" and lamented "it is a pity that people are dying so young, the genetic heritage of two brother nations like Russia and Ukraine."
Regarding the Istanbul talks, international media reported at the time that the Kremlin set conditions for Ukraine to renounce claiming the territories occupied by Russia during the invasion and to rule out demanding any kind of compensation for the damages of the conflict. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, then described the Russian demands as "unacceptable," without providing further details.