U.S. to consider draft Istanbul agreements as basis for peace in Ukraine

The draft Istanbul agreements of 2022 may be used as a basis for the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. This was stated by special envoy of the US President Stephen Whitkoff on February 23.

"The Russians have made it clear that they are ready for an end to this [conflict]. There were very persuasive and substantive talks that resulted in the protocol Istanbul agreements. I think we will use that format as a benchmark for a peace deal," Whitkoff said on CNN.

As Donald Trump's special envoy noted, the day of the signing of the peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia will be a "wonderful day." He also added that Washington, after the past talks with Moscow in Riyadh, expects very rapid progress on the conflict settlement.

"Our talks in Saudi Arabia <...> in my opinion were positive and constructive. I'm optimistic and positive and, like President [Trump], I think we can make [some progress] fairly soon," he concluded.

Whitkoff also added that the US expects to sign a rare earth metals deal with Ukraine within a week.

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Earlier on February 23, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that new negotiations between the Russian Federation and the USA would take place at the end of next week. The diplomat noted that Moscow was waiting for real progress from them. The meeting will be held at the level of heads of departments of foreign policy agencies.

Thefirst stage of talks between the Russian and US delegations took place on February 18 in Riyadh. After the meeting, the US State Department said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had agreed to appoint high-level negotiating teams to start work on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.