I have no other choice, but I am completely open to negotiations,
Vladimir Putin told a secret group of intermediaries in late 2022 through his longtime acquaintance Matthias Warnig, according to unian.net. Between late 2022 and early 2023, an unofficial channel of Western and Ukrainian intermediaries attempted to broker a peace agreement that would have forced Russian troops back to pre-invasion boundaries in exchange for Ukrainian territorial and strategic concessions, documents reviewed by the Financial Times reveal.
Western capitals establish backchannel to Kremlin amid nuclear fears
The clandestine diplomatic effort began as western capitals feared a direct nuclear escalation. On October 11, 2022, G7 leaders warned Vladimir Putin of severe consequences following nuclear threats, while Ukrainian forces pressed counteroffensives in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, unian.net reported. Behind the scenes, American lawyer Richard Conn and investment banker Bob Foresman established a backchannel to the Kremlin using Matthias Warnig, a former East German Stasi officer and former head of Nord Stream AG who has known Putin since the 1990s, according to Novaya Gazeta Evropa and ECHO.
Through Warnig, Conn delivered a message from the White House stating that the United States did not seek regime change or the destruction of Russia, as reported by ЭХО. Returning from Moscow, Warnig met with Conn and Foresman in Germany on October 26, 2022, reading from his notebook that Putin claimed he had no other choice than military operations but desired a peace that would last a century, according to ЭХО and hvylya.net. Ukrainian producer Alexander Роднянский (Rodnyansky), who helped organize previous talks in Istanbul, joined the group to manage communications with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and then-head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, novayagazeta.eu noted.
Terms of the Aborted Peace Plan
By early January 2023, the intermediary group finalized a written peace proposal based loosely on the stalled Istanbul framework from April 2022, unian.net reported. Under the terms, Russia would withdraw its forces from most of the territories it seized after the February 2022 invasion, resetting the line of contact to the borders held in Crimea and parts of the Donbas prior to the full-scale war, according to unian.net. In exchange, Ukraine would recognize Russian control over Crimea, grant Russia an unobstructed overland corridor to the peninsula, and forgo NATO membership in exchange for security guarantees from NATO member states, hvylya.net stated.
When Rodnyansky and Warnig carried the document to Moscow and Kyiv, the reception differed sharply. On February 1, 2023, the group reconvened to hear Warnig report that Putin had analyzed the document line by line, marking up the margins and agreeing to the proposed front-line boundaries while rejecting NATO integration for Ukraine but leaving room for European Union membership, unian.net and novayagazeta.eu reported. Conversely, when Rodnyansky presented the terms to Zelensky and Yermak, Ukrainian leadership flatly refused any territorial concessions, believing they could achieve most of the other conditions without giving up sovereign ground, according to unian.net and hvylya.net.
Collapse of the Backchannel
The backchannel ultimately dissolved in February 2023 after Putin brought the initiative to his aide Yury Ushakov and checked with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan through channels to see if the American intermediaries held an official mandate, novayagazeta.eu and hvylya.net reported. Once U.S. officials confirmed the group lacked formal authorization, the momentum vanished. Former American officials interviewed by the Financial Times noted that the initiative was one of several concurrent private contacts, while Warnig later disputed accounts regarding the severity of the 2022 nuclear threats, according to hvylya.net.
Who participated in the secret group and what did the plan propose?
Who participated in the secret intermediary group?
The unofficial negotiating group included American lawyer Richard Conn, investment banker Bob Foresman, former Stasi officer Matthias Warnig, and Ukrainian producer Alexander Rodnyansky, as reported by novayagazeta.net and ЭХО.
What specific territorial changes did the 2023 peace plan propose?
The plan required Russian forces to withdraw from regions occupied after February 2022, establishing a front line along the pre-invasion boundaries of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, while Ukraine would recognize Russian control over Crimea and provide a land corridor, according to unian.net.
Why did the unofficial negotiation channel fail?
The initiative collapsed in February 2023 after Vladimir Putin asked his aide Yury Ushakov to verify American backing, and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan clarified that the intermediaries possessed no official Washington mandate, as detailed by hvylya.net.
How did Ukrainian leadership respond to the proposal?
President Volodymyr Zelensky and then-head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak refused to review territorial compromises, stating they would not cede land, according to unian.net and hvylya.net.
I have no other choice than to conduct military operations. But I am very open to negotiations. I want to talk about solutions. I want peace for Ukraine,
Warnig recorded Putin as saying in his notebook during their October 2022 meeting, hvylya.net reported.
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