‘Freeze the conflict’: Drones slow Kazakh oil flow amid Russia-Ukraine war

Sitting next to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Saturday cautiously weighed in on the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fifth year.“If I may offer my humble opinion … perhaps it is time to freeze this conflict and ‌return to the Istanbul formula 2.0,” he told reporters in the ⁠Siberian city of Omsk.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3At least 15 killed in Ukrainian and Russian strikes as holiday camp hitlist 2 of 3Ukraine war: Is Kazakhstan going cool on Russia?list 3 of 3Iran accuses Ukraine of deadly attack on Caspian commercial vesselend of listTokayev was referring to a botched agreement that envisaged an immediate suspension of hostilities along the existing front line and further talks brokered by Western powers.After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow ally Tokayev dared to contradict Putin by emphasising that Kazakhstan would not recognise occupied Ukrainian regions as part of Russia.But this time, he praised Putin’s “diplomatic flexibility” and named Russia among the “great powers” that could guarantee peace in Ukraine.“All of this should be stopped, because what’s happening plays into the hands of t...