Report: Russia demands NATO pullback to 1997 positions in Ukraine talks
Moscow revived demands it made before the 2022 invasion as Trump and Putin prepared to meet in China next week
Russia demanded that NATO pull its troops and bases back to their 1997 positions, rule out further expansion and end military activity in Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia, The New York Times reported.
In a paper dated Tuesday and circulated at talks in Abu Dhabi, Moscow also called on Britain and France to rule out using their nuclear weapons to defend other European countries, demanded an end to Western arms supplies to Ukraine and said Kyiv could join the European Union only if it stayed out of the bloc’s common defense policy.
A person involved in the talks provided the Times with a copy of the unsigned paper, and a second person familiar with the negotiations confirmed its authenticity. Both said it set out Moscow’s opening position and that Russian officials had signaled President Vladimir Putin could still show some flexibility.
The proposed NATO pullback revived a demand Moscow made in December 2021, two months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It would affect Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all of which joined the alliance after 1997. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Thursday that accepting Russia’s terms would pose a direct threat to Poland’s security.
The Abu Dhabi talks brought US, Russian and Ukrainian officials together in person for the first time since February. A US official told the Times that President Donald Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, urged Moscow to put forward proposals that included concrete steps by Russia to ease tensions.
Kushner and Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow on Thursday. Putin told them that Russia’s 2021 proposal still reflected his approach to European security, according to his foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov. The envoys then briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Dublin, where Kushner said any deal would require Europeans to be at the table.
Trump and Putin were due to meet next week at an Asia-Pacific summit in Shenzhen, China, for their second face-to-face meeting of Trump’s current term.