Report: Russia demands Finland leave NATO
Moscow also called for NATO to give up its bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and for Ukraine to cede the rest of the Donbas during talks in Abu Dhabi, Bild reported
Russia demanded that Finland leave NATO and that the alliance give up its military bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, German newspaper Bild reported. The Russian delegation presented the demands during recent talks with the United States and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi.
Under the proposal, Russia would retain the Ukrainian territory it occupies and take control of the rest of the Donbas, including parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions still held by Kyiv. Ukraine would remain nonaligned and give up its bid to join NATO, while EU membership would remain possible.
Moscow also called for demilitarizing the Ukrainian ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv and reaching agreements on freedom of navigation in the Black and Baltic seas, Bild reported.
The proposal would turn Moldova into a federation that included Gagauzia and the breakaway region of Transnistria. Both regions could hold independence referendums if Moldova joined the EU. In return, Moscow offered to withdraw its nuclear weapons from Belarus, forgo intermediate-range missile deployments there and pull its troops out of Transnistria.
US envoy Jared Kushner said on X that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to include European partners in the next round of talks, allowing them to discuss postwar European security alongside territorial disputes. He said the US delegation had met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Dublin after the Abu Dhabi talks.
Kushner said any broader European security agreement would have to address Ukraine’s security concerns. He also said negotiators were working toward what could be the largest prisoner exchange of the war, involving thousands of people.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was open to talks if European governments were willing and had someone authorized to speak for them, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported. “Then, of course, we would be prepared to speak with them,” he told reporters, adding that Putin remained open to contact.