Russia presents list of demands to end war with Ukraine: Report - The Times of India
File Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump
Russia has reportedly come up with a list of demands to end its war with Ukraine, presenting these to the United States, whose President Donald Trump has been actively trying to end the conflict, since beginning his second term in January.
Russia's 'special military operation' against Ukraine has been on since February 2022.
While it is not clear what exactly Moscow has included on its list, or whether it is willing to engage in peace talks with Kyiv before the demands are accepted, officials from America and Russia discussed the terms during their in-person and virtual conversations over the last three weeks, according to Reuters.
The officials described Russia's terms as 'broad and similar' to demands it had previously presented to Ukraine, the US and NATO.
The earlier conditions included no NATO membership for Ukraine, an agreement not to deploy foreign troops there, and international recognition of President Vladimir Putin's claim that Ukraine's Crimea and four other provinces belong to Russia.
In recent years, the Kremlin has also demanded from the US and NATO to address what it calls the 'root causes' of the war, including NATO's eastward expansion.
Trump waiting to hear from Putin on Zelenskyy's truce offer
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is awaiting word from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on whether the latter will accept a 30-day truce that Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he would accept as a first step toward peace talks.
Putin's commitment to a potential ceasefire agreement is still uncertain, with details yet to be finalized.
Some American officials, lawmakers and experts fear that Putin, a former spy, would use a truce to intensify what they say is an effort to 'divide' the US, Ukraine and Europe and undermine any talks.
In Ukraine's capital Kyiv, President Zelenskyy hailed this week's meeting in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian officials as 'constructive', and said a potential 30-day ceasefire could be used to draft a broader peace deal.
Failure of previous Russia-US talks on Ukraine
Moscow has raised many of these same demands over the last two decades, some of these making way into formal negotiations with Washington and Europe.
Most recently, it discussed these conditions with the previous Joe Biden administration of the US in a series of meetings in late 2021 and early 2022 as tens of thousands of Russian troops sat on Ukraine's border.
These included demands that would constrain US and NATO military operations from eastern Europe to central Asia.
While rejecting some of the terms, the Biden administration sought to forestall Russia by engaging on several of the terms, according to US government documents reviewed by Reuters and multiple former US officials.
The efforts failed and the Russia-Ukraine war began on February 24, 2022.