Russian investigative source Systema has published a document that allegedly reveals Russia’s initial peace proposal for Ukraine. The document, reportedly verified by sources on both sides, offers a rare look into Moscow’s conditions for ending its invasion shortly after it began in early 2022.
The proposal, drafted by the Kremlin, was reportedly shared with Ukraine’s delegation during the third round of talks between the two countries, held in Belarus on March 7, 2022. The leaked document outlines strict demands for Ukraine, laying out Russia's vision for a peace agreement that would have fundamentally altered Ukraine’s political and military landscape.
The leaked document, consisting of six pages and four additional pages of attachments, contained 18 articles that touched on a wide range of issues. At its core, the proposal demanded Ukraine adopt a position of permanent neutrality – meaning the country would stay out of NATO and refuse to allow foreign troops on its soil.
Beyond neutrality, the document laid out Russia’s demands for a vastly reduced Ukrainian military. The Russian proposal called for Ukraine to limit its army to only 50,000 soldiers, a fraction of its 2022 strength. It also supposed a ban on Ukraine developing any long-range missiles or potentially dangerous weapons in the future.
The leaked text highlights some of Russia’s most controversial territorial demands. It required Ukraine to formally give up its claims to Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as recognize the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia also insisted that Ukraine bear the cost of rebuilding war-torn areas in Donbas, dating back to 2014, when the conflict in eastern Ukraine first erupted.
However, these demands were drafted before Russia’s later annexation of four Ukrainian regions in September 2022. At the time, the Kremlin's proposal did not include the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which Russia later claimed.
Aside from military and territorial conditions, the document touched on cultural and social issues. It stipulated that Russian should be made an official language in Ukraine and required Ukraine to restore property rights for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Additionally, it demanded that Ukraine legalize Soviet and communist symbols, including those linked to the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, which had been banned in the recent years.
According to Systema’s report, the Kremlin offered few concessions to Ukraine in exchange for meeting its demands. The main offer was a “ceasefire regime” and a halt to combat operations, but it included no promise of Russian troop withdrawal from the occupied Ukrainian territories. Instead, Russian forces would remain in place until all terms of the agreement were fulfilled – a process that could have taken years.
Under the proposal, Ukrainian forces would have to retreat to bases approved by Russia, while all Western support for Ukraine’s military, including foreign advisors, would be terminated.
Both sides met regularly in early weeks of the war, exchanging proposals and updating terms almost daily. By mid-April 2022, both sides had made significant adjustments. Russia’s position on some issues softened, particularly around Ukraine’s future military capacity and international security guarantees for a neutral Ukraine.
In the later version of the agreement, drafted in April, Russia and Ukraine had tentatively agreed on a mutual disarmament of forces near the borders, with international guarantees coming from key nations like the US, UK, and China. Notably, by April, the two sides had allegedly reached an understanding on the status of Crimea and Sevastopol. It was reportedly agreed that the status of these regions would be resolved diplomatically, rather than through force.
One of the main points of contention, however, was the size of Ukraine’s future army. Ukraine, insisting on a need for national security, proposed a force of 250,000 servicemen, its size before Russia’s full-scale invasion. Russia, on the other hand, wanted Ukraine to limit its military to 85,000 troops.
When launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin justified it as a move to protect the people of the self-proclaimed separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. However, the conflict has since expanded far beyond these areas, with Russia now occupying nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
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