Kazakhstan’s leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev urged Russia’s Vladimir Putin to “freeze” the war in Ukraine and stated that his country “does not understand its nature”, speaking during televised talks held in Omsk, Siberia, on July 25.

Kazakhstan has not previously spoken out against the conflict explicitly, but President Tokayev left Putin in no doubt that he believes the war, in its fifth year, “should be frozen”. His words will add to pressure on the Russian leader, who faces difficulties caused by Ukraine’s ever improving ability to conduct missile and drone strikes deep inside Russia.

“It is tragic, of course, that young people are dying. They are the gene pool of the brotherly peoples of Russia and Ukraine,” Tokayev also told Putin at the meeting in Omsk, held as part of an inter-regional cooperation forum.

He said he had decided to relay “his humble opinion” because he had received a request to deliver a message, though he did not specify who made the request.

Ex-Soviet Kazakhstan aims to maintain good relations with all the major powers under its multi-vector foreign policy, but the Central Asia country is one of Russia’s few allies that has some real sway with the Kremlin. In May, Kazakhstan welcomed Putin for a second state visit in two years.

In his televised discussions with Putin, Tokayev said the fighting should be halted and negotiations resumed on the basis of the Istanbul framework.

"Perhaps the conflict should be frozen and we should return to the Istanbul Agreements 2.0, of course, under the guarantee of great powers," Tokayev said.

Reflecting that "the nature of this conflict is not entirely clear to many, including us", he contrasted it with the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, which he described as having well-established historical roots.

'Not an offer of mediation'

Tokayev stressed that he was not offering to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv. "I categorically refuse to be a mediator," he said, adding that as a “great power” Russia was capable of resolving the issue without intermediaries.

Putin did not publicly respond to Tokayev’s proposal during the meeting but said he would brief Tokayev on developments regarding what the Kremlin calls the "Ukrainian track".

Later, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the suggestion of freezing the war, saying "a freeze is impossible", adding: “Our overriding condition is that we must achieve our objectives.”

Tokayev also said Putin had shown "maximum diplomatic flexibility" during his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska in 2025 and reiterated Kazakhstan's commitment to strategic cooperation with Russia.

Ukraine welcomed Tokayev's remarks. Acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the proposal as "a realistic, timely, and wise message" in a post on social media on July 26.

"Ukraine has proposed stopping the war along current frontlines and turning to diplomacy, but the Kremlin continues to reject this clear path to peace," Sybiha wrote, adding that Russia should face greater pressure to accept realistic peace proposals.

Balancing act

In a balancing act, Kazakhstan has stuck to close ties with Russia during the war years while refusing to recognise the Russian-backed separatist entities in eastern Ukraine and repeatedly affirming Ukraine's sovereignty. 

Tokayev's unusually direct remarks in Omsk represented his clearest public appeal to Putin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Although he has consistently avoided directly condemning Putin or the invasion, he has repeatedly distanced Kazakhstan from several key Kremlin positions.

Tokayev’s statements follow a series of Ukrainian attacks that have reached further into Russian territory, damaging major oil refineries and facilities belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest ecommerce company, known as “Russia’s Amazon”. 

Western leaders have intensified their criticism of Moscow. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump told Putin that "it's time to stop."

Kazakhstan shares the world’s longest continuous border (at a length of 7,600 kilometres or 4,722 miles) with Russia. Many observers in Kazakhstan worry that Kazakh territories, which once formed part of the Russian Empire, could become another target for Moscow if it was to triumph over Ukraine. However, recent events have increasingly demonstrated that the Kremlin might be losing its geopolitical leverage over other ex-Soviet states, including Kazakhstan. Among developments is Kazakhstan’s introduction of a measure that from July 27 that places a six-month ban on most wheat imports, a blow to Russia.

Rising pressure on Kazakh oil exports

The war, meanwhile, continues to impact Kazakhstan’s economy. Around 80% of the country’s oil exports pass through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) route that runs to the Russian Black Sea coast. It has faced renewed drone attacks in recent weeks. Kazakhstan has temporarily cut oil production since loading was suspended at the CPC in the wake of recent attacks.

Kazakhstan responded to four drone strikes on tankers – carried out in proximity to export transit infrastructure that receives Kazakh oil shipped by the CPC – that took place over four days, from July 17 to 20, saying they undermined global energy security and were an “unacceptable infringement upon the economic interests of the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

However, Ukraine's Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Viktor Mayko, denied Ukraine carried out the drone strikes in comments made to The Times of Central Asia. Mayko was quoted as saying that Ukraine understood Kazakhstan's concerns over the attacks but stressed that there was no evidence linking Kyiv to the four incidents. Kyiv suggested that the attacks were actually false flag operations run by Russian military drone units.