Moscow wants a new security order for Europe as part of any Ukraine peace deal, according to a BBC analysis. After talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the Kremlin called for "a new, long-term architecture of indivisible security and peace". The BBC said this means Moscow wants to reshape Europe's security set-up in Russia's favour.
The Kremlin has revived its December 2021 "draft treaties" with the US and Nato. Those proposals sought guarantees that Ukraine and Georgia would never join Nato. They also sought to roll back Nato military infrastructure from central and eastern Europe. That covered countries that joined the alliance after the Soviet Union broke up. Western leaders rejected the demands at the time as an unacceptable ultimatum. Two months later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy aide to President Vladimir Putin, suggested Moscow will soon "add certain new considerations" to its demands. He linked this to Western efforts "to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia". Putin says he wishes "eternal peace" for Ukraine, the BBC reported. Yet he continues to reject a comprehensive ceasefire. Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote that diplomats should now make the West heed Russia's concerns about Nato enlargement.
Kallas said the demands are designed to "shift attention away from a ceasefire". She wrote on social media that a ceasefire should come first, then a peace agreement. Only after that, she said, should Europe's wider security architecture be discussed.
Europe, however, is not at the table. This week's peace talks in Abu Dhabi involved only Ukraine, Russia and the US. After his Moscow talks, Witkoff indicated that Putin had agreed to let European representatives join the next round. On Friday, however, the Kremlin said no final decision had been taken. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a decision on wider talks would come once Moscow understood Europe's "true intentions".
Last month, the leaders of Norway and Finland called Putin. Next week, he may meet Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Shenzhen, China. The meeting could take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit. The BBC noted that Russia has suffered huge battlefield losses. Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries have also raised fears of new fuel shortages.