Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for a freeze of the war in Ukraine during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Omsk, Siberia, marking a rare public appeal from a close Moscow ally to halt hostilities.
Speaking at the opening of a bilateral cooperation summit, Tokayev told Putin that young people were dying and the fighting must stop. He proposed returning to the framework of the 2022 Istanbul agreements as a basis for negotiations, saying the conflict's origins remained unclear to many, including Kazakhstan. Tokayev described the war as an interstate conflict rather than a civil war and declined to serve as a mediator between Moscow and Kyiv.
Putin pledged to keep Tokayev informed of developments on the Ukrainian front.