Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Kazakhstan forum held in Omsk, Siberia. Tokayev presented a concrete proposal there to stop the war in Ukraine.
“If you allow me to present my humble opinion, perhaps the time has come to freeze this conflict and return to the Istanbul formula 2.0,” Tokayev said. The Kazakh leader praised Putin's “extremely diplomatic flexibility” and stressed that with security guarantees from great powers, long-awaited peace could be achieved and this conflict must be brought to an end.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Putin elaborated to Tokayev on the current state of Russia's military operations in Ukraine. Peskov conveyed that Putin said “given Kyiv's position, it is impossible to freeze the conflict as is.” According to the Kremlin spokesman, Putin indicated that military operations could be halted today if Kyiv made the appropriate decisions.
Russian President Putin last month demanded that Ukraine withdraw from four regions that Russia claims as its own and explicitly abandon plans to join NATO for peace. No progress was made in negotiations, first held in Istanbul after the full-scale invasion began in 2022 and then repeated in 2025.