Russia wants Europe at Ukraine peace talks to win NATO concessions

Russia, according to diplomatic sources cited by the British newspaper The Telegraph, is seeking to draw European countries into peace talks on Ukraine in order to secure concessions on NATO enlargement. President Vladimir Putin calls it the “main cause” of the war.

According to the paper's sources, Putin could compromise on other issues if his key demands are met. “In essence, this means stripping Ukraine of its sovereignty and forcing NATO to stop expanding eastward,” the newspaper quotes its interlocutors as saying.

Moscow, the sources believe, may demand that the alliance limit the presence of member-state troops to 1997 levels, that is, before the former Eastern Bloc countries joined NATO. In practice, this would mean withdrawing international forces from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as from Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023.

Last week, Russia agreed to hold trilateral technical talks in Abu Dhabi next month, after a long break in US-mediated meetings. Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said he does not expect significant progress and called the meeting a “trial round”.

European and Ukrainian representatives are ready to discuss “the broader context of post-war security arrangements in Europe” in Abu Dhabi. However, according to unnamed European officials, the position toward Russia has not changed since 2022.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz