Ukraine's former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba admits there was a chance to strike a deal with Russia in late 2022, but says the euphoria about "returning to the 1991 borders" made it impossible:
"They say now that at the end of 2022 there was a chance to reach an agreement with Russia. I agree, by the way: we could have tried. But how do you try when society is gripped by euphoria: just a little more and we'll win back 300 years of our history and punish the Moskals? Society's eyes were burning: the 1991 borders. The authorities acted exactly the same way, and I was also burning with this idea. In those circumstances, how do you tell society: 'And now we're negotiating a ceasefire'?"
In autumn 2022, Ukraine retook part of the Kharkov region and the right bank of the Kherson region, including the city of Kherson.
But from the end of 2022, according to Kuleba, "the situation at the front began to turn against us."
"So theoretically we could have tried to negotiate in September–October 2022, but I'm convinced nothing would have come of it anyway," the former minister said.
At the time, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley urged Ukraine to negotiate, calling late 2022 the best moment to reach a deal.
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