“It is a shame, young people are dying.” Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that with Vladimir Putin sitting beside him in Omsk on July 25, 2026, and went on to urge the Russian leader to put the fighting on ice.
The occasion was a bilateral regional forum. Tokayev framed it as an answer to a question put to him. “Perhaps it is time to freeze this conflict and return to the Istanbul Formula 2.0, because significant results were achieved there,” he said. Guarantees from the great powers, Russia among them, could then open the way to what he called a long-awaited peace. He did not spell out what the Istanbul formula would involve.
What Tokayev said, and did not say
He told Putin the nature of the war was “not entirely clear to many, including us”. TRT World reported that he described his country as no bystander, yet declined any mediator role, trusting a great country like Russia to resolve things on its own. Messages had reached him from both Europe and Washington, he said, about what he called an interstate war. Carrying on, in his view, only pleases the enemies of Russia and of the Ukrainian state.
Tokayev also credited Putin with “diplomatic flexibility” during the Anchorage summit with Donald Trump in August 2025. Putin listened, Euronews reported, and answered that Tokayev would be kept updated on events at the front.
Moscow says no
The Kremlin dismissed the idea within hours. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “a freeze as such is impossible”. Russia’s one main condition, he said, is that “we must achieve our goals”. TRT World linked that to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbas region and give up plans to join NATO. Peskov added that Tokayev has a consistent position on Ukraine, which does not mean Moscow agrees with it, and called Kazakhstan “our closest partner and our closest ally”.
Kyiv took the opposite view. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X: “We appreciate President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev telling Putin it is time to stop the war. A realistic, timely, and wise message.” Ukraine, he added, has offered to halt where the lines now run and move to diplomacy, while the Kremlin keeps refusing.
Why it stood out
The Kyiv Independent called the remarks unusual: a close Russian ally publicly pressing Moscow toward negotiations. Russia and Ukraine first held talks in Istanbul shortly after the 2022 invasion. Talks resumed there in 2025 with three rounds, dated May 16, June 2 and July 23. They produced prisoner swaps and draft memorandums but no breakthrough.
The talk in Omsk was not only about the war. Putin had visited Kazakhstan in May. In Omsk he put last year’s trade turnover at almost $28 billion, with growth of more than 4% over January to May, spanning metallurgy, mechanical engineering, energy and pharmaceuticals. Tokayev put 2025 bilateral trade at around $28 billion and called the trend this year very positive.
Sources
- Ukraine responds as Kazakh president Tokayev urges Putin to freeze the war in Ukraine
- Tokayev urges freeze in Russia's war against Ukraine (Kyiv Independent)
- Tokayev urges Putin to freeze Ukraine war on 'Istanbul Formula 2.0'; Kremlin says 'impossible' (TRT World)
