Russia intends to use the next round of Ukraine peace talks to demand major concessions from NATO, including rolling back the alliance's military presence on its eastern flank to 1997 levels, according to diplomatic sources cited by The Telegraph. The report, carried on Monday by Polish News and by Ukrainian news outlet LIGA.net, has not been announced by Moscow as a formal negotiating demand.
Source: The Telegraph via Polish News
A pullback to 1997 would mean a potential withdrawal of NATO troops from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023. All five countries border Russia. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly described NATO expansion as what he calls a root cause of the war against Ukraine, a claim NATO and Ukraine reject.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov has argued that Europe should be involved in negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States because the continent would play an important role in any agreement, The Telegraph reported. Ushakov played down expectations for the first meeting, calling it a trial period, according to reports of his remarks to Russian media.
Direct negotiations mediated by the United States are scheduled for November in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, after a lengthy pause, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced on Friday, according to the Polish News report. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the trilateral meeting was unlikely to end the war but could address limited ceasefires on energy infrastructure and grain exports, as well as prisoner exchanges, Sky News reported via Q Radio.
Source: Sky News via Q Radio
A European official told The Telegraph that Europe's position remains the same as in January 2022, referring to NATO's rejection of Russia's pre-invasion demands to withdraw troops and equipment. European and Ukrainian officials have said they are willing to discuss broader postwar security arrangements, but not a forced pullback.
Russia made similar demands in late 2021, several months before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, seeking a halt to NATO enlargement, particularly for Ukraine and Georgia. Those claims were rejected at the time. The Kremlin has also previously demanded that Ukraine surrender territory in the eastern Donbas region that Russian forces have not captured.