Russia has presented the United States with a list of demands for an agreement to end the war against Ukraine and reset relations with Washington, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
It is not clear exactly what Moscow has included on its list or whether it is prepared to engage in peace talks with Kiev before accepting the request.
Russian and U.S. officials discussed the terms during in-person and virtual talks over the past three weeks. They described the Kremlin’s terms as broad and similar to demands it has previously made to Ukraine, the US and NATO.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that US officials are going to Russia to discuss the US-Ukraine agreement on a 30-day ceasefire and the path to peace talks.
Russia wants to solve the “causes” of the war
Russia’s previous conditions included Kiev not being a member of NATO, an agreement not to deploy foreign troops in Ukraine and international recognition of President Vladimir Putin’s claim that Crimea and four provinces belong to Russia.
Russia has also in recent years demanded that the US and NATO address what it called the “root causes” of the war, including NATO’s eastward expansion.
Trump is awaiting Putin’s response on whether he will agree to a 30-day truce that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday he would accept as a first step toward peace talks.
Putin’s commitment to a possible cease-fire agreement is still uncertain, and the details have yet to be finalized.
Some US officials, lawmakers and experts fear that Putin, a former KGB officer, will use the truce to step up what they say is an attempt to divide the US, Ukraine and Europe and undermine any talks.
In Kiev, Ukrainian President Zelensky hailed this week’s meeting in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian officials as constructive and said a potential 30-day ceasefire with Russia could be used to broker a broader peace deal.
Limitation of US and NATO military operations from Eastern Europe to Central Asia
Moscow has made many of the same demands over the past two decades, and some have entered into formal negotiations with the US and Europe.
Earlier, Moscow discussed them with the Biden administration in a series of meetings in late 2021 and early 2022, while tens of thousands of Russian soldiers waited on the Ukrainian border for orders to invade.
They included demands that would limit US and NATO military operations from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.
While rejecting some of the conditions, the Biden administration sought to prevent the invasion by working with Russia on several of them, according to US government documents reviewed by Reuters and multiple former US officials. The effort failed and Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.
US and Russian officials have said in recent weeks that a draft agreement discussed by Washington, Kiev and Moscow in Istanbul in 2022 could be a starting point for peace talks.
In those talks, Russia demanded that Ukraine abandon its NATO ambitions and accept a permanent nuclear-weapon-free status. He also asked for a veto on the actions of countries that want to help Ukraine in case of war.
The Trump administration has not explained how it is approaching negotiations with Moscow. The two sides are holding two separate talks – one on the restoration of US-Russian relations, and the other on the peace agreement in Ukraine.