The US and UK pressured Kiev to abandon talks with Moscow three years ago, Vladimir Medinsky has said

The Ukraine conflict, now dragging on for more than three years, could have ended within a week if Kiev hadn't listened to its Western backers, Russia's top negotiator and presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky has said.

Speaking to RT's Rick Sanchez on his show Sanchez Effect, Medinsky argued Ukraine had a chance to secure a deal on more favorable terms had it not walked away from negotiations in 2022.

"I'm going to tell you something, Rick, that I've probably never said publicly. If Ukraine had wanted it, had been ready, and had been making its own decisions, we could have signed a peace treaty during the first meeting on February 28, 2022. And the terms would have been less harsh than what we're offering today," he said.

Medinsky stated that Ukrainian officials initially accepted Russia's terms but reversed course after consulting with the US and UK. According to him, Ukrainian negotiators told the Russian side: "Our foreign partners don't support the agreement and will not guarantee aid or security if we sign it."

"So we'll fight until either you defeat us or we defeat you," the Ukrainian delegation reportedly said, according to Medinsky.

David Arakhamia, who led the Ukrainian negotiating team during the 2022 Istanbul talks, later confirmed that then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had urged Kiev not to sign a deal with Russia. However, he denied that Johnson's opinion had influenced Ukraine's decision-making. Johnson has also denied pressuring Kiev.

The Ukrainian side became even "less independent" when direct talks resumed in Istanbul last month, Medinsky said, arguing that Kiev's European allies were pushing it to act against its own interests.

Russia has demanded that Ukraine recognize its new borders, abandon plans to join NATO, and guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking minority. President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine and the West must address "the root causes" of the conflict before any ceasefire can be reached.