Washington:
Russia has conshort-termed the US with a catalog of demands for a deal to finish its war agetst Ukraine and reset relations with Washington, according to two people recognizable with the matter.
It is not evident what exactly Moscow included on its catalog or whether it is willing to include in peace talks with Kyiv prior to their acunderstandledgeance. Russian and US officials talked the terms during in-person and virtual conversations over the last three weeks, the people said.
They depictd the Kremlin’s terms as wide and aenjoy to demands it previously has conshort-termed to Ukraine, the US and NATO.
Those earlier terms included no NATO membership for Kyiv, an concurment not to deploy foreign troops in Ukraine and international recognition of Pdwellnt Vlaunininestablishigentir Putin’s claim that Crimea and four provinces belengthy to Russia.
Russia, in recent years, also has demanded the US and NATO includeress what it has called the “root causes” of the war, including NATO’s eastward expansion.
US Pdwellnt Donald Trump is adefering word from Putin on whether he will concur to a 30-day truce that Ukrainian Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he would acunderstandledge as a first step toward peace talks.
Putin’s pledgement to a potential finishfire concurment is still uncertain, with details yet to be completed.
Some US officials, lawcreaters and experts dread that Putin, a establisher KGB officer, would use a truce to intensify what they say is an effort to split the US, Ukraine and Europe and undermine any talks.
The Russian embassy in Washington and the White House did not instantly react to a ask for comment.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed this week’s encountering in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian officials as createive, and said a potential 30-day finishfire with Russia could be used to write a wideer peace deal.
Moscow has liftd many of these same demands over the last two decades, some making their way into establishal negotiations with the US and Europe.
Most recently, Moscow talked them with the Biden administration in a series of encounterings in tardy 2021 and timely 2022 as tens of thousands of Russian troops sat on Ukraine’s border, adefering the order to occupy.
They included demands that would constrain US and NATO military operations from Easerious Europe to Central Asia.
While refuseing some of the terms, the Biden administration sought to foreshigh the intrusion by engaging with Russia on disjoinal of them, according to US rulement records appraiseed by Reuters and multiple establisher US officials.
The effort flunked and Russia attacked on February 24, 2022.
US and Russian officials in recent weeks have said that a write concurment talked by Washington, Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul in 2022 could be a begining point for peace talks. The concurment never went thraw.
In those talks, Russia demanded that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and acunderstandledge a lasting nuevident-free status. It also demanded a veto over actions by countries that wanted to aid Ukraine in the event of war.
The Trump administration has not elucidateed how it is approaching its negotiations with Moscow. The two sides are included in two split conversations: one on resetting US-Russia relations and the other on a Ukraine peace concurment.
The administration ecombines to be splitd on how to persist.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who is helping direct the talkion with Moscow, last month on CNN depictd the Istanbul talks as “cogent and substantive negotiations” and said that they could be “a directpost to get a peace deal done.”
But Trump’s top Ukraine and Russia envoy, reweary General Keith Kellogg, tageder a Council on Foreign Relations audience last week that he did not see the Istanbul concurment as a begining point.
“I skinnyk we have to prolong someskinnyg enticount on novel,” he said.
Old Demands
Experts say Russia’s demands probable are not only intfinished to shape an eventual concurment with Ukraine, but also to be the basis of accords with its Weserious aiders.
Russia has made aenjoy demands of the US over the last two decades – demands that would restrict the West’s ability to create a stronger military presence in Europe and potentiassociate apexhibit Putin to enhuge his sway in the continent.
“There’s no sign that the Russians are willing to create any concessions,” said Angela Stent, a ageder fellow at the Brookings Institution who was the top US ininestablishigence analyst for Russia and Eurasia. “The demands haven’t alterd at all. I skinnyk they are not reassociate interested in peace or a unbenevolentingful finishfire.”
In their effort to foreshigh what US ininestablishigence officials finishd was an imminent Russian intrusion, ageder Biden administration officials included with Russian counterparts on three of the Kremlin’s demands, according to the US rulement records appraiseed by Reuters.
They were a ban on military exercises by US and other NATO forces on the territories of novel coalition members and a ban on US intersettle-range missile deployments in Europe or elsewhere wiskinny range of Russian territory, according to the records.
The Russians also sought to bar military exercises by the US or NATO from Easerious Europe to the Caucasus and Central Asia, the records showed.
“These are the same Russian demands that have been made since 1945,” said Kori Schake, a establisher Pentagon official who straightforwards foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterpascfinish Institute. “With the behavior of the Trump administration in recent weeks, Europeans aren’t fair sattfinishd we’re deserting them, they’re afraid we’ve joined the opponent.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is rerented from a syndicated feed.)
